Dispatches | November 03, 2006
Wait
As a teacher at a women’s college I have a unique perch from which to watch and wonder about my students. For a change, this semester, I have small, boutique classes, which allows me to run a rather informal classroom. Many of my students feel comfortable telling stories about their boyfriends, and from what I can tell, they settle for what by their own admissions are mediocre guys. There’s a divorcee who wants my student to become the stay-at-home mom of his posse of hardnosed boys. Another student dates a “player” who doesn’t return her cell phone calls and openly flirts with her prettiest friends. Oddly, my least favorite is a small town football hero who has no intention of moving on. The only one I think I like is a sensitive, girl-pants wearing emo boy who sends care packages of books and candy.
So many of their trials and tribulations were my own, dare I say almost twenty years ago. I remember it well. I was an odd looking little girl — gap toothed, fuzzy haired, rail thin — who slowly, and perhaps even miraculously blossomed by the time I arrived at college. So stunned was I by male attention, I said yes to dates from any guy who asked. After a number of boring conversations and bad action movies, I opted to spend weekends alone or with the girls in my dorm. Though I learned to practice selectivity, the dates didn’t dry up. I can even look back on my college boyfriends and see that I somehow made good choices; they were all bright, hunky, hardworking, what my mother called a “good catch.”
Yet, I am still in touch with that old familiar feeling when I sit down to write. Like my students, I sell myself short, though this time around I do it on the page. I willingly latch onto my first sentence as if I am glad to have any sentence at all. Unfortunately, I don’t practice the same patience and selectivity in my writing as I do in my personal life, where it’s paid off. I didn’t marry until I was 37, and I made a whopping good choice.
I call it “writing desperate.” It is the fear that another idea, another first sentence, another fresh metaphor, you name it, will never come again despite the fact that experience tells me that it will. All I can do is counsel patience, and take seriously the Post-it on my computer that reads “wait.”
SEE THE ISSUE
SUGGESTED CONTENT

Dispatches
Feb 28 2020
2020 Miller Guest Judge in the Spotlight: Alex Sujong Laughlin
2020 Miller Audio Prize Guest Judge Alex Sujong Laughlin shares her journey to becoming an audio producer, the lens through which she sees the world, and how TikTok makes her… read more

Dispatches
Oct 15 2019
Last Call for Submissions to the Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize
The LASY DAY to enter TMR‘s Editors’ Prize has arrived And with it, the last call. The 29th Annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize Contest closes tonight! You have the rest of… read more

Dispatches
Mar 08 2019
Interview with 2019 Miller Audio Prize Guest Judge Cher Vincent
Our guest judge this year, Cher Vincent (she/her), is an audio producer based in Chicago. She is currently Lead Audio Producer for One Illinois, a nonprofit news outlet, covering statewide news and producing… read more