The one where we graduate

Uncategorized, writing by Tabitha Lawrence

A story in ‘grams.

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Day 1 is for readings and reunions. We shyly gather for the first time in a year and listen to 2 alumni readers and 2 faculty readers and fall under the spell of residency magic, and then we go to Farelli’s and get a little drunk and the transformation is complete. We are all our residency selves once again. 🌲 A friend and I also made a little tradition out of coming out a day early to wake up early and hike Mt. Rainier. It’s the most incredible way to ease into the social overload of the first day. Obviously, today didn’t look like that. Waiting for the zoom reading to begin was somehow more anxiety inducing than that first meeting in person?! But in that 30 minute happy hour between readings when I got to see the faces of cohort, I felt like we got closer to the selves we planned to be this week. Tonight’s readers were @writesintherain @jensorianowrites @mmmockett and @fictionalsejal and they were all incredible. I’m ready. (Swipe all the way to see the second worst mosquito bite reaction I’ve ever had from my first hike to Mt. Rainier. Wear big spray, people.) #RWW #lowresidencymfa

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Day 6. Something I’m really missing is just being able to walk around at school. It’s such a gorgeous, peaceful campus. Each year, residency is 10 days worth of workshops and classes and readings. They’re extremely full, 12ish hour days of absorbing kind of world-changing stuff. It feels like that, at least. Doing it from home without being able to take a break and lay in the grass, or wander the wild little forest land by moonlight when I drank too much wine to go to sleep just yet, has been really hard. But each early morning lecture and class and reading and presentation and cohort happy hour has a way of linking together, one way or another. That’s how the residency magic finds a way to seep through, even now ✨

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Day 7. One week into the residency. This morning, all the returning students found out the mentor they’re paired with for the year. It feels like a huge decision, and in a lot of ways, it is. ⁣ This is the person you’ll be most vulnerable with. The person you let read drafts that will embarrass you later, who will talk you off the ledge when you hate everything you write and question if you’re even a writer to begin with. Their feedback will shape you and encourage you and frustrate you and pick you back up again. ⁣ But in a way, it’s not such a big decision because there’s no wrong option. You can’t forget rule #1: @rickbarot1 , our fearless omniscient leader, is never wrong. He knows better than you ever could about what you need. ⁣ In both of our first years, I had @aprilayerslawson . She writes the stories that my stories want to be when they grow up. She inspires me endlessly. My second year, I had Kent, who very gently and patiently kicked my butt into learning how to be choosy with my words and cut out all the rest. This last year, I had Marjorie, who carefully and confidently made me a finisher. ⁣ I can’t believe I have to go into a new year without a mentor. But as each of these incredible writers have shown me, I’m leaving with a little bit of all three. 🥰

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“And then it was over. The spell was broken. She left.” -me, lol 🌸🌵🌸 Yes, I’m quoting myself from the story I read at the graduate reading last night. I was really proud of that story, and of this manuscript that I’ve been carrying along with me all this time. I started This is Not Intimacy in college, trying to cobble together stories about some micro-drama nonsense in my life in time for deadlines, but it wasn’t until yesterday, holding it in my hands and taking ownership of the words, that it felt like the start of something. It’s 2020. Let’s finish our books. ⁣ (And yes, I had Britt take some grad photos of me in the outfit I was going to wear for reading holding my manuscript because that’s my baby and I’m proud.)

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