The Perfect Fit: College, Art, and Words

Our culture all too often promotes the perfect fit. Maybe it began with Cinderella’s slipper, but today we look for perfection in objects, people and schools. Guidebooks talk about fit all the time and they do some good in giving advice but some students take the college search as a hunt for the Platonic Ideal

What follow are some words from someone who knows about how the world needs be changed, described and lived in and learned from.

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Can you tell us a little about yourself? That’s a bland enough way to start, but you have some pretty unique things about your family and where you live that could make this far more than a typical response. I will, either after the question or somewhere on here, post the essay you wrote about where you come from.

My name's Ryan. I have nine siblings and four parents, more or less. I live in Ferncliff, VA, which is a small community in Louisa County. There are many dairy cows, clear skies, and empty 40s thrown from car windows.

Ryan

You are an exceptionally gifted writer. Can you talk about how your first became interested in writing?

When I was in first grade or so, our teacher gave us journals made from extremely wide-lined notebook paper pages, construction paper covers, and staples. I had fun during free-write time in class. In second grade, I filled up my entire notebook in one free-write session (it was only about 20 pages). I graduated to a composition book and started writing my first novel. It was about time travel and iguanas.
I was interested in books before I knew I was really interested in writing. I owe that to my parents.

You attended the Young Writer’s Workshop a few years ago. For those who don’t know about it could you describe what it is and why you would recommend it to others?  Who would thrive there and who would not?

YWW is a two- or three-week intensive summer program in which high school students attend writing workshops with peers from across the country (if not across the globe). I've heard many alumni say that YWW was the first time they felt like they found people who "got" them. I definitely felt the same way.

To thrive at YWW you have to be open to embarrassing yourself, silly summer camp rituals, and sharing terrible drafts with a class. High school kids who are convinced that they are the next Balzac will not thrive.

Ryan,: painting by Sharon Shapiro 

You have just finished your first year at Oberlin and I want to you to talk about your experience there but before doing so I want to ask about how you approached deciding which schools you were going to look at and apply to. What were you looking for in a school? 

I wanted a place with a good English or writing major, a fairly liberal student body, wonderful professors, and great visiting lecturers/events. In the end I also realized that I wanted a small school; I really liked both Oberlin and Kenyon.

What weren’t you looking for?

A school where professors don't know students' names. Oh, and also sports.

Why did you decide on Oberlin? Can you mention what was like for you when you visited as a prospective student?

I really fell in love with the school when I visited in the fall of my senior year of high school. I remember parking our car on the side of Tappan Square (the park in the middle of campus and the town); I looked out and saw two students practicing the tango on a picnic blanket. Posters around the school advertised lectures by writers I loved and subjects I enjoyed. 

I also did an interview at Oberlin, and I absolutely loved my interviewer -- we spent a while talking about race in our respective hometowns versus at Oberlin. At the time, I was potentially interested in the Africana Studies major.

It wasn't cold that day.

The art museum was fabulous.

Mostly, though, there was just a feeling I couldn't place. I wanted to move in that weekend. I felt very comfortable and at-home.

Oberlin Art Museaum

Can you describe how orientation worked at Oberlin and is there anything you would suggest they do that would improve it?

First-years and transfers arrive a week before upperclassmen do (though a few still do come). There are a couple of 'required' activities on the first couple of days: a presentation about the honor code, a play about the basics of social justice lingo, a meeting with your academic advisor. There are also non-required activities -- discounted tickets to the nearby amusement park, apple-picking, Shabbos dinner. Welcome speech by the president.

And then, of course, there are the unofficial activities. Upperclassmen put on a lot of parties during this week, also known as "disorientation." Then there's another "disorientation" in which upperclassman put together a zine about all the greedy and bad things the school's administration does. 
Orientation was fun but a bit long, in my opinion. I think it could be four or five days and be just as effective. I think lot of first-years fall into cliques at this point just because they didn't know anybody else.
 

What was your first semester like in terms of classes, activities and social life? Why were you considering transferring at that point?

I had a really hard time making friends. Which is to say that I was intimidated by going to an open mic or auditioning for a play; I also didn't want to go out and party, because I thought that would make me fake friends (I don't think it would, now).

My classes weren't great. I signed up for all 100-level classes my first semester because I thought that that's what you were supposed to do. I was bored and I felt like Oberlin wasn't that much harder than high school. When tuition is as high as it is, a transfer seems like a very worthwhile idea.
I figured that the problems I had at Oberlin were unique to the school and had nothing to do with myself -- i.e., that switching schools would automatically make me a social butterfly and a course-catalogue aficionado. 

I'm glad I did the transfer process, though. I was impressed with how easy it was; I guess I put in a lot of practice the first time that I applied for schools.

You completed an intense project while there. Do you want to describe what it was and perhaps share it some way?

During the month of January, Oberlin students do a "winter term" project. This can be about anything -- a play, a class, an individual thing, going abroad.

I wrote a blog: http://eatyourgreensproject.tumblr.com/

This project arose because I noticed similarities in the rhetoric[s] of American diet culture and environmentalism. I began to ponder what it means that America speaks of both the individual body and the ecosystem in the same way, and whether that is healthy and/or productive. 

We have talked on many occasions about the way women exist in our society. You have strong views. Do you want to say what changes you’d like to see happen to the culture?

What a question! 
I want gender-neutral bathrooms for everyone. I want no one to ever be raped again. I want no more harassment or molestation. I don't want to ever see a mudflap girl again. I don't want to hear people disrespecting preferred pronouns. I want trans needs to be covered by healthcare. I want advertising to feature women of color and fat women. Better yet, fat women of color. I want people to stop thinking eating disorders are about vanity and beauty. I want feminism to stop being so exclusionary of transwomen, nonbinary people, and people of color. I don't want people to think Jezebel.com-brand feminism is a radical political movement.

You applied to a number of schools for transfer and were accepted at some big name schools. You ultimately decided to stay at Oberlin. What changed?

I met some of the best people I've ever met. The weather got warmer. I declared my major (a double in environmental studies and creative writing). I switched to the best co-op (KHC!) and got out of a relationship. I became comfortable spending time alone.

Did you find a mentor or teacher who you connected with?

I found a couple! Garrett Washington, a visiting professor in the history department, taught my first-year seminar during the fall semester (it was about the history of water, its cultural interpretations, etc.). I audited a 300-level seminar with him during my second semester. That one was called Missionaries & The Environment; it was particularly incredible because I was one of five people. Dr. Washington is interested in global environmental history, which is a topic of great interest to me. He is kind, interesting, and gives great feedback on writing. Unfortunately, he has taken a position in Massachusetts this year.

My writing professors -- Sylvia Watanabe and Kazim Ali -- are the coolest. Kazim gave my class an anthology that he made for us of all of his favorite poems in the world. We read it over the course of the first semester. It is what convinced me to pursue poetry seriously.

Ryan

You have been very busy since you arrived home. You have recently published a book of poems. Can you talk about how ths came about since, for a while, you were not writing that much poetry.

As mentioned in the previous question, Kazim inspires/inspired me a lot. Affirmation from my professors this year helped me realize that I'm not just some whiny teenage poet, and, even if I am, who cares?

I realized that I have a lot more fun writing poetry than I do writing fiction. I feel more, and I can come to the points that I want to come to quicker. There is more space to be experimental in the ways that I wish. 

The book, All the Boys I Love Look Like War Memorials, was for my sister's birthday. I published it on July 16th, the day she turned 14. I wanted to write her poetry that she would understand and enjoy.

In addition to this, you just published a poem in a magazine. Would you be wiling to share it here?

The Milk Poem

Late, at the bottom of the field, my sister and I
watch the dairy cows turn in for sleep. They cry
in the barn. We hear them low across the grass,
each of them moaning: moon, moon.

My sister turns to me and asks if sky is animal,
exploded: I tell her yes, and also that she is matter,
compacted. Light hardens on her hands like prayer
as she stands beneath the moon. It’s dripping milk.

In Catholic school, they taught us that all of creation
has only one heart. That it beats within us.
That cigarettes may clot God’s will. That science
makes every human organ a milkless flower.

Sister Jamie poured a drop of red food coloring
into a bowl of milk and told us, as the veins branched,
that God moved both within and without us,
but that we infinitely absorbed Him. Sun

to Earth; cycles of dark. My sister and I know
that in the blue night, light is anything that can
be caught but never held. Spilled milk. Our bodies
set each other into bonfires: the moonlight makes us look obscene.

And yet we know this blind field exists only to collect milk
and meat. Each female cow swells with her own liquid
while my sister’s hair rolls away from her like cream.
Our bodies answer to moons, not to milk—

each of us licks the shores of our skin
until we become banks of our own blood.
Here, in the clockless night, the only fluid
is white. God drips red. Moon, moon.

My sister tilts her head to the constellations—
her lips are pink, as the meeting of milk and blood.

http://www.rookiemag.com/2014/07/i-will-paint-the-sky/5/

You come from a creative family. How important is this in your own development?

It's imperative. Both of my biological parents are artists. My stepdad's a chef. My stepsister's a photographer. My little siblings are, themselves, works of art. 

Let me put it this way: as a six-year-old, I was given free reign with both of my parents' studios. A room with hundreds of paints, brushes, and papers is heaven to a six-year-old. I was encouraged to be creative, and I thought it was the way everyone was, because my greatest role models were artists.

What doe you do for fun? Are there website, books, blogs, films etc. that you would recommend for those seeing a different view of things?

Uh....hmm. Here's a list of the things I do when I'm bored online:
http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/
early 2000s music videos 
tumblr (mine is hauntedfruit.tumblr.com / shameless promo!)
Listverse

And shameless plug for my favorite movies: Atonement, Fallen Angels, and E.T.

Fallen Angels movie still

What advice would you give to creative students who are looking to improve their skills.

Read. First, though, read about the things you're interested in. If you're not into global finance, don't try to sit down and read a tome about it. It'll bore you and you'll hate it. Build a set of skills by broadening what you already know about, and then apply those skills elsewhere.

Anything else you want to add?

If you've always wanted to be a writer, sit down and be a writer!

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Ryan's special and typical too. Her gift with words surpasses most in the world. She won an award for the best high school writer in Virginia, she’s published poems in national forums, and she also wrote college essays that did more in a few words than many can do in books. She’s also read far more than most students graduating college. She is the only high school student I have ever recommended reading David Foster Wallace’s mammoth masterpiece, Infinite Jest. She not only read it but started a reading group about it too. She’s recommended books and writers I have not read and they have been exceptionally great finds.

But her story of having some trouble adjusting to college is not all that unusual. Unlike Kate,  whose move into the UT Plan II honors program I featured here recently (and is now linked to the Plan II website), and who  immersed herself in a world she loves, Ryan had to discover what Oberlin was and wasn’t. The guidebooks and orientations and email updates make college often sound like a place where everything fits. I think that the emphasis on all that is good raise expectations in ways that lead students to question their choice, if everything is not great. Sometimes the adjustment has to do with the world students come from (as was the case with another student who thought about transferring but stayed and is just starting a great job at PwC after having the time of her life for her final two years at her university). Sometimes it’s just a matter of things that are far more complicated than just a cultural adjustment (in an upcoming interview with a student at a school that almost everyone would want to go to, Harvard, you will learn that not everything goes according to plan).

Ryan’s journey to Oberlin should serve as a model for students going off to college soon. The first semester is often tough. Students may question their choices. I would encourage students to look elsewhere but also to stay focused on the school they are in. Ryan was accepted to very prestigious schools but chose to stay at Oberlin and I am virtually certain this is the best choice for her. She knows the school for what it is and has navigated through much of the toughest parts of adjusting to a new environment. 

For those who want to get a sense of how a great writer can talk about where they come from I will repost  the essay she wrote for colleges last year. During a guest lecture this summer  I used this essay at the Young Writer’s Workshop as an example of how to write well.

I want to thank Ryan for her words in all the different forms they appear here. I am lucky to know her and I predict she will continue to publish and create and let us learn from her.

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The following essay was submitted to the essay prompt: describe the world you are from.

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Louisa

Summer in Louisa is a lazy, Faulknerian season, loud with rolls of thunder as imposing as the voice of God. In the fall, gunshots of hunters boom from behind my bedroom window; in winter, they are silenced in small part due to state regulation, but it’s mostly the muffling effects of snowfall. In the spring, clouds like flayed salmon-bellies coast across the dimming Virginia sky.  Between my home and I-64 is a lumber mill that reeks at night of cedar and a gamy pestilence.

Across from the mill, a gravel driveway that leads to an unkempt double-wide is marked by a state sign that reads ‘Misery Road.’ Go a few miles up to find Louisa County High. Their mascot is the lion, and, every year during the homecoming game, they bring a downtrodden African lion onto the field. During the off-season, the lion is kept in a barn and satiated on juicy t-bone steaks from the local Wal-Mart, located at Louisa’s main drag - Zion Crossroads. Local lore used to have it if you went there at midnight, you found yourself face to face with Beelzebub. Nowadays, you’d just find yourself face to face with a strip mall and a couple of gas stations.

My hometown is its own brand of wild. Here, houses burn to the ground not because of Absalom, Absalom!’s Clytie, but because of crystal meth labs. Here, residents still wonder how the South could have lost the Civil War. It is in this nescience that I pluck stories like seeds from the cornfields. I plant them in the red dirt so that they may lean towards the light.

If you had to rate this essay from 1-5 with 5 being the best what rating would you give and why?

What personal character traits do you attribute to the writer of this essay?

Does this essay help predict success in a highly selective college? Why or why not?

Would an essay like this convince you to admit this student over others who might have a higher rank in class? Why or why not?

How important are essays in the overall evaluation of students to selective colleges and universities? How important should they be?

If you are currently a student would you want this writer as a roommate? Why or why not?

If you are a parent of a student would you want your son or daughter to have this writer as a roommate? Why or why not?

If you are an educator would you want this student in your class? Why or why not?