Ydrl

Welcome to the madness, and just letting you that whatever you do is your choice and you shouldn’t be shamed for doing it. I want to leave my state, so a fully funded program makes sense for me, but it’s okay if it doesn’t work for you.

Welcome to the thread! And I would say getting waitlisted at Michener is an amazing feat! And we can be discouraged poets together. It may be my first time applying, but I have virtually no confidence.

Haha me too, even though I’m too scared to ask Syracuse/WashU when acceptances are going out.

We can be nervous together! I’m nervous ‘cause of Syracuse and WashU. They could give out acceptances as soon as this week and that’s terrifying. I hate feeling like this...

True, I do support loving my body at any size. However, I mainly need to lose the weight for health reasons. GERD sucks, especially when I choke on acid in my sleep and it goes down my windpipe. Also, I don’t know how I would hold myself up/climb with the current amount of strength in my arms versus my weight so I need to strength train anyway. I’ll be okay though, thanks for the concern

If I were fit enough to start aerial silks, I would probably be in the same boat you are. I still need to lose the 45-50 pounds that I put on in my first two years of undergrad...

I mean, that’s probably gonna be me, but I won’t know until I try.

Nice! And both seriously take an incredible amount of muscle and coordination to pull off. I’ve been wanting to get in shape but haven’t had a fitness goal. Now that I do, maybe it’ll work for good this time. And thanks for the support by the way, for a second I thought I was embarrassing myself based on the reactions of other people.

Not into aerial silks? Or the weight loss? Both? Edit: Just realized that most of you are grown men. Edit edit: My bad

So I think I know what I want to do to pass some time. Probably going to start getting in shape enough to do aerial silks. I’ve gotten sucked into the YouTube vortex and now I’m pretty jazzed about getting in shape. Imagine that. I highly recommend watching aerial silk videos on YouTube, it’s kind of magical.

@litty thanks for the brief explanation. I wasn’t about to dive deep into this issue (which I’m sure would make me angry). I think the thing that stood out the most was the fact that Oprah endorsed it which for a lot of people makes it okay? Let me put it this way. Let’s say that someone is minority 1 and the book they’re endorsing is a controversial representation of minority 2. Just because they’re both minorities, doesn’t mean they are in the exact same boat on every single issue that the majority don’t have to deal with. Oprah, and any one POC celebrity, isn’t the be all end all to let everyone know that something is or is not okay. I’ll get back to this if anyone responds.

Good, it’s not just me. Or we could be collectively going nuts over here. I’m already nuts so it’s fine, I’ll descend deeper into the madness.

You’re welcome! Billy Collins is very easy to read, he’s far from a depressing poet, and I think he’s pretty funny sometimes. Needless to say he’s refreshing to me. I hope so too TT_TT

I mean, poetry is ultimately what you get out of it. There can be a lot of confusing layers in a short poem (based on a lot of techniques) like “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams. I enjoy all of those poets, but to really get the most out of poetry, I read pretty wide. Billy Collins is a good introductory poet, he exemplifies what I like most about precise imagery and creative topics, two of the things that really make poetry so wonderful to me. The things is, no matter who you ask, you’ll probably get the same answer of imagery, and then something different. Poetry can also be fiction or nonfiction, or have a hand in each pot. What poetry isn't very good (subjective but I’m trying to encompass literary (as opposed to Instagram) poet opinions here): Always rhyming for no reason. A lot of things in poetry need a reason, the form is too short not to have a reason for most of the things you do (even line breaks). It’s also not just a thought broken up into a few lines without imagery or context to back it up (I’m not a fan of most instagram poetry for this reason, but let them do what they will). Sorry for my ramble, I’m a poetry nerd with opinions. Thanks for listening! Side note: I had a dream where I was accepted into Syracuse and I woke up ugly crying about it only to realize it didn’t actually happen.

Update, first rejection from Ohio state is up. Whoever applied should check their portals.

I’m also a poet. I’m somewhere between surrealism and commentary (not always political or social). Think of me as the incomprehensible person muttering to themselves and when you get closer the words oddly resonate with you. I like to think my writing is like that anyway. Sometimes creepy, sometimes depressing, sometimes oddly specific.

I would make one but I don’t want it to be public. I just want a series of videos to watch on my own time.

First, Congratulations! Second, breathe. Third, a lot of the universities in big cities are pipe dreams. Fourth, my brain has melted a long time ago and I’m basically thinking with a puddle of chocolate.

@rbr542 yeah I tried to apply to places where I could live by myself off the stipend, and then Iowa because it’s Iowa. Some will be tougher than others to live on (I.e. Cornell and WashU are easy) but I tried to apply to colleges that had a stipend (Or GA/TAship guarantee) to back up the cost of living.

I already did that. That's what I was doing this time last year. I even calculated hypothetical rent amounts I could afford based on every possible stipend. But that is a really good piece of advice. Too bad I already went down that very long rabbit hole and made it into a spreadsheet.

Anyone else just checking the portals just in case they decide to post a decision? I know there isn’t a point to checking, but in my head there is.

I wish I had the money to apply to stony brook and Cornell, but I chose Cornell.

I know, and they know too, but they’re hearing about all the other grad school acceptances and are wondering when I’m leaving the state for good. And I’m doing my best to distract myself but there’s only so many times I can bake scones.

I’m still not over the fact that spam calls from Syracuse keep popping up only right now. I’ve gotten three so far and it’s both really funny and really upsetting.

I wasn’t really aware of the Facebook groups for undergrads haha. Everyone I talk to about applications used to just roll their eyes at me. Now they’ve started to wonder why I haven’t gotten in anywhere yet and it definitely kills me a bit every time someone asks. Hopefully we all get accepted somewhere.