The honor — and challenge — of a commencement speech

This past weekend, hundreds of Spartans graduated from Michigan State University as part of the Class of 2019. I was able to not only witness the College of Arts & Letters ceremony first-hand, but take part in the festivities as well. For the last five years, I have been a member of the CAL Alumni Board of Directors. As president this past year, I was given the opportunity to address the graduating CAL students on behalf of the alumni of the college.

My husband Zack was also a member of the CAL board, serving for six years before I, as I liked to joke, continued the Pohl dynasty on the board. Being a member of the CAL board gave me the opportunity to meet and become friends with several other alumni, as well as reconnect with MSU and the great things going on in our college.

While the college will be moving forward with a different way of engaging alumni and forgoing its traditional board, I was honored to be asked to speak at CAL’s commencement as a sort of last act as president.

I had several ideas of what I wanted to say and do during my speech, but in sitting down to actually write down my thoughts, I realized how challenging these things can be.

Continue reading “The honor — and challenge — of a commencement speech”

Poetry: “Rebound”

A few months ago, I learned about the Lansing Sidewalk Poetry Competition, a project that would help celebrate the different neighborhoods of Lansing with poems. The winning poems for each area (Old Town, REO Town, the Stadium District, and the Eastside) will be etched into the sidewalk in those parts of town.

Poetry was one of my favorite genres to write in, from high school through college and grad school. Since then, though, I haven’t found the inspiration or opportunity to write poems. I work best with an assignment, and being able to bounce ideas off of classmates and teachers to really fine tune the writing.

I entered the contest with hopes that my poem would be etched into the sidewalk of Old Town, my chosen area of inspiration. Sadly, I found out last month that my poem wasn’t chosen. But either way, it was a great opportunity to use some writing muscles that have gone soft, and in the end I have a poem that I really like. I also feel it accomplishes the hope and goal of the competition: to share a connection to an area, embracing its history and personal significance.

I love Old Town, and can remember feeling like it was a world away when I was at MSU. Now it is a favorite destination to go with family and friends. I wanted to write about how Old Town has evolved over the years, and including elements of the jazz and blues festivals.

Here is my poem. Continue reading “Poetry: “Rebound””

Happy National Poetry Month! Here’s more bad high school poetry.

As promised, I dug up some more poetry from high school in honor of National Poetry Month.

This one is actually a twofer.

I found this tucked into the pages of my poetry notebook, and I’m imagining it’s the result of a Gallimaufry exercise. I can see how my poetry voice was starting to come out, instead of relying on cliches and melodramatic, high school girl language.

Continue reading “Happy National Poetry Month! Here’s more bad high school poetry.”

Happy National Poetry Month! Here’s some bad high school poetry.

Well, it’s National Poetry Month, and just a few days into April, I’m already seeing friends posting some of their favorite poems on social media. In the years before mommyhood, writing poetry was something I lived for. It helped me format my thoughts in different stages of my younger life. So for the sake of being vulnerable and having a laugh, I’m going to be sharing some of my best and worst stuff during the month of April. Continue reading “Happy National Poetry Month! Here’s some bad high school poetry.”

Nonfiction Essay: Captive Audience

Earlier this year, I read some information about a writing contest with the Lansing State Journal, called Lansing Writes for the Arts! The winning essay writer would receive tickets to the Broadway Series shows at the Wharton Center, and this year’s topic was about the impact of the performing arts. Learning about this contest felt like the kick in the pants I needed to flex my writing muscles.

Creative nonfiction was my favorite genre in undergrad and grad school. I was able to take the lessons I learned in my poetry classes and apply them to nonfiction essays, putting past experiences into perspective while playing with the language.

I wrote my essay in a matter of days, and I was way overconfident about my chances. The tickets to the shows would have been a great prize, but truly I loved the idea of having my creative writing published for others to read. Isn’t that the thing about writing or singing or doing something creative, that we equally don’t want anyone to read or hear or see us and yet want the attention and validation?

Ultimately my essay wasn’t chosen, and it has been collecting dust in my Google Docs the last several months. Then recently, as I was trying to think of blog post ideas, I realized that I have my own little slice of the internet to put my writing whenever I want! And maybe it’ll force me to write more essays, or go back through some of my essays from school and polish them up and see what could possibly shine.

So without further ado, here’s my essay. As it explains, my foray into the performing arts was limited, but not because I didn’t love doing it. Really, it’s because my talents in that area are mediocre. But I love being an audience member. That thought is what carries through in the essay.

Also I sort of leave out the fact that I was in “The Vagina Monologues” in college, so if you want to call me James Frey, that’s okay. The essay worked better with the omission. ** Insert shrug emoji or shrugging Elmo GIF. **

Continue reading “Nonfiction Essay: Captive Audience”