wtw '09

Four years ago, I had the pleasure of attending the Lake Forest Writing and Thinking Workshop at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, IL. I met so many creative people and made a handful of friends that are still a part of my life today. That two week workshop is forever remembered on Facebook as "the greatest two weeks of my entire life."

WTW was the first time I had ever been away from home for an extended period of time. It was my first time having a roommate and suitemates. It was the first time I came out and said, "Hey! I'm not going to be a victim anymore!" after a very long and hard year for me.

The workshoppees spent 5 hours every day writing, writing, writing. The hand cramps were legendary, second only to the hand cramps I got after completing the AP English Literature exam in 2010. My notebook is still sitting within my bookshelves at home, my seventeen year old self forever embodied in its pages.

We took field trips to Evanston, Andersonville, and downtown Chicago. There was a sunrise workshop on the beach. I shot 8 rolls of film in the two weeks we were there, my trusty Minolta Maxxum XPsi never as far from me as a pen was.

I can't believe this was all four years ago already.

If I had a time machine, I'd go back and do everything all over again: writing until my hand cramped, texting late into the night with friends from home because I had so much to say, taking so many pictures, burying Stephen in the sand, playing James Bond (only the greatest card game known to man), the 5 hour long game of Uno, hiding all of my suitemate's stuff and making her believe that her mom was coming to pick her up a week early, staying up all night the last night because nobody wanted to leave.

I'd do everything all over again in a heartbeat.