08/29/25: Don't Worry About Me, I Toured in Punk Bands

 Here's a little snapshot into what my at-home writing situation is like as of August 29th, 2025. I've been fortunate in that my dear friend Zach and his partner Erin have allowed me to stay in their home while I participate in my grand experiment of Marist 2.0. Currently, I reside in their basement, where I brought the mattress and bedframe from my guest room back in Richmond up to Wappinger's Falls so that I had a place to sleep. Also, an important note: the basement is significantly larger than what is pictured here, and I've got my own restroom! So, why am I sharing this image? Well, because I reference it during my progress journal entry, so I figured I'd go full transparency. 

The title of this post being a reference to what I said to Zach and Erin as they, very kindly, continually checked in with me to make sure I was going to be okay. I used to spend weeks sleeping on floors with a sleeping bag and sometimes a pillow, sometimes a rolled up sweatshirt. This is the Ritz-Carlton as far as I'm concerned. 

Finally, the analysis and theory section of this entry are shorter as it was only 3 days after my previous, and I was still early in the semester so there wasn't much writing being done yet. The rest of the entries will be weekly updates so those will be expanded upon a bit more.

The prompt for the free write was for us to compare two texts we had read on the establishment of Composition Studies as a discipline.

08/29/25

Free Write in Literary Composition class:

In “Composition in the University” we are exposed to the historical development and significance of composition studies as it stands in the academic world. A large takeaway from this text is that the field of composition studies didn’t find its footing in academia until much later than one might think, and also that it has had a difficult time being taken as a field worth the resources and devotion of Universities, despite the fact that the skills composition studies develop are desirable across almost all academic fields. In “Where did Composition Studies Come from?” We are taking a deeper dive into the steps taken to develop the field of composition studies, prior to, and even during, its initial expansion across college campuses. While Composition in the University addresses the struggle that academics of the field encountered, and still encounter, while implementing composition studies as part of the academic program, Composition Studies is focused on the various theories behind the development of composition studies as we know it today.

Analysis/Reflection:

Spent this week getting reacclimated with academia as well as the surroundings on campus. I was feeling some discomfort with those surroundings (mostly hinged on my age gap with the students/the feeling that I was imposing on something, I think the kids call that imposter syndrome), so I mostly did my writing from my bed in the basement of my friend’s house which I am staying at.

As a sign off for this post, here's one of my favorite songs about basements. It's not lost on me that I spent years playing shows in basements, to only now be finishing up my academic pursuits while living in one. 

The Menzingers, "After the Party"

"Everybody wants to get famous, but you just want to [finish your degree] in the basement."