When I was a high school student learning about BC, I
heard a lot about how BC helps students get outside their comfort zone. During
my freshman year, this certainly happened in a lifestyle sense. I moved far away
from home for the first time, met amazing new friends and defeated my move-in
fears to make BC my beloved home-away-from-home. However, there was one area in
which I didn’t leave my comfort zone in the same radical way: classes. Sure, my
classes were more challenging than ever before and I grew tremendously as a
student while having a ton of fun, but it wasn’t until recently, during my
sophomore fall semester, that my limits were profoundly tested by a creative
writing class.
Even before I applied to BC, I knew that I wanted to
pursue creative writing as a course of study and hopefully a career path. I had
written fiction novels in high school, but while I was very serious about my
work, I shared it with very few people outside my immediate family. I wasn’t
ready for that until this semester, when my time came in the form of my
short-story Writing Workshop class. Going in, I knew the class had a very
relaxed structure with no real writing “assignments,” just a powerful sense of
mutual accountability between students and our amazing professor. I also knew
that several times over the course of the semester, I would need to give a
story to classmates, who would discuss it in class. I felt apprehensive about
this type of exposure, but since I love writing, I took the plunge.
Fortunately, I had already met the professor, and his humorous
but passionate teaching style helped me feel comfortable as I signed up for the
second day of story critiques before I could lose my nerve. When it came time
for my critique, I actually enjoyed it a lot. At the risk of sounding sappy,
I’d say it was a dream-come-true to open up about a story and see fourteen
other smart young writers actively engaging with it. It means the world to me to
be immersed in a group that treats our art as something that really matters.
Halfway through the semester, I can say that the class
has been one of my favorites at BC so far, and that my love for creative
writing is now stronger than ever. Most of all, I appreciate how the class has made
my aspirations as a writer much more real while also showing me with extreme
honesty just how much I can still grow. Through this class, I’ve gained
perspective on how much I needed to break free from my comfort zone as a
writer––and also how BC’s challenges consistently enable me and other students
to chase our full potential wherever our interests may lie.
-Ross Tetzloff '17
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