Preston Smith
I’m not sure what I expected when I decided to complete my senior undergraduate thesis at university a year early, but it hasn’t been easy.
I find myself roughly three-fourths of the way through the penultimate year of my undergraduate degree, and what a ride these three years have been. This semester has me juggling five courses, completing my undergraduate thesis, working a part-time job, becoming a staff member of Prairie Margins (a literary journal housed on my university’s campus), writing content for Fuzzable, attempting to build up my creative writing portfolio, preparing to study abroad this summer, and of course trying to find time for fun.
And yet I’d wager that this semester is the happiest I’ve been since I enrolled at my university.
For a long time I told myself I was too busy to accomplish a lot of the things I wanted to do. This became a huge problem with my creative writing. Because I’m majoring in English literature and not creative writing, I simply wasn’t writing because it wasn’t part of my course load. I decided last semester that I needed a change and began allocating time in a way as to fit more into my schedule, and lo and behold I’m capitalizing on this initiative quite a lot. I’m getting more articles for Fuzzable written and adding to and revising my creative portfolio.
My writing this semester is not all creative and journalistic, though. Because I am working on my thesis, I get to devote the entire semester to researching a single topic, which is a breath of fresh air after jumping from topic to topic in all of my classes the last few years. In a broad sense, I’m researching how fairy tales relate to the theoretical archive with a specific focus on my favorite series, Once Upon a Time. I think I’d ultimately like to examine how Once Upon a Time has redefined the term “fairy tale,” whether intentionally or not, by its re-examination of the literary archive.
While I’m beyond thrilled to be writing so much for a variety of outlets, traveling is very much on my mind. I knew coming into college 3 years ago that I wouldn’t forgive myself if I graduated without studying abroad. College gets busy and my dream of traveling took the back seat, but I finally got everything sorted and am on track to study abroad this summer at the University of Salzburg in Austria.
Since I’ll have completed my thesis and hopefully will have studied abroad, I’m hoping my senior year will be a smooth one that I can enjoy every minute of. This entire school year has been my attempt at ensuring this.
The exciting events leading up to this summer start in a mere few weeks when I will be attending my very first AWP conference in Tampa, Florida. I cannot wait to be surrounded by writers and of course soak up some sun – it’s been nothing but snowy and frigid where I live!
It’s not always sunshine and merriness, but I’m doing everything I can in a field I love.
As always, comment below and tweet us @Fuzzable with what you’re most excited about this year!
