One of the hardest things to do, I’ve found, is propose a project that you care about and then make it happen. While developing the final project idea for my Minor in Writing Capstone class, I struggled to figure out what I wanted to do that would be meaningful to me now and in the future, that would challenge and interest me, and that was manageable and realistic. 

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I’m supposed to know what I like? I’m supposed to assign myself homework that I will actively want to do? I’m supposed to be able to identify a goal that is attainable? Yes. I was supposed to do all of these things. And I did them, thanks in large part to my peers who were engaged in our workshops and to my teacher, Shelley, who was encouraging and interested and inspiring. 

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For my project, I wrote a collection of essays. The motivation for this project is personal. I set out to challenge myself to write about subjects I care about, to read, research and craft compelling arguments and narratives. I’ve always thought of myself as a writer in some way; I always found it easiest to express myself through the written word. I have a lot of opinions that I        feel are worth talking about, and my perspective as a young woman leaving college and entering the “real world” may offer some unique takes on relevant issues. Since I took a literary theory class my freshman year of college, I have been interested in how to use critical theories to think about the world at large. I have been interested in thinking about how my perspective as a woman leads to different experiences and interpretations. I wanted to use the part of me that engages daily in rants and tangents and translate that to essays that tell a story and make people think.

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The essays span a number of different topics, but the thread that ties them together is my attempt tackle the subjects I encounter and think about in everyday life through a feminist lens. In writing these essays, I tried to emulate some of the great essays and collections I read in preparation, which meant working to integrate my personal voice and my own anecdotes with research and critical engagement with academics. Through the genre of the personal essay, I hope to contribute to a number of conversations that, broadly, cover what it means to be a woman in the modern world, but I also hope to share the voices of people who are doing important, scholarly work on the topics that I’m interested in.

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Each essay has a short accompanying playlist. In an attempt to make the site and the collection feel authentically me, I worked to curate music playlists that would set the mood, send a message, etc. I’ve found that recommending music is something that feels very vulnerable. By sharing with people the music I like to fill my days with, I feel like I’m showing them a very personal part of myself. By attaching music to these playlists, I hope to establish a kind of community with the readers. They’re reading my words, listening to my music and, hopefully, thinking about the things I’m thinking about. 

 

I use these essays as an opportunity to think deeply about how I live my life and how I regard the world around me. And while this collection is just seven essays long, through the course of this project, I’ve discovered a genre that I truly enjoy writing in. I’ve learned about myself as a researcher and a writer and I’ve opened my eyes to all the questions I can ask and stories I can tell. I hope that this collection serves as an introduction to further work as an essayist.