The Writer's Poke

When I was younger, I used to think that Spring Break was the time to party. I thought everyone was flying to the Caribbean or Mexico, drinking way too much, and doing way too many things they shouldn’t be doing. I guess I was somewhat jealous, too, because I never had a ticket to Spring Break hedonism. I stayed at home. I looked at my class schedules, and I thought about how I could utilize the week to prepare for the rest of the semester. Sometimes it felt like I was the only student in the United States that bothered to use Spring Break this way. The Spring Break that stands out in my mind the most, maybe, is the one that I dedicated to the Toni Morrison. I had a Toni Morrison/Richard Wright class, and I read Tar Baby, Song of Solomon, and Jazz. That was my Spring Break, reading those three books. When I look back on it now, I call it my Spring Break with Toni. Now that I’m an instructor, I realize that most students don’t go on vacation during Spring Break....

  I don’t know if there’s an “ideal age,” but when I dream I’m often times younger – generally between 15 and 25. In fact, I can’t recall ever having a dream where I’ve been older than my actual age. Last night I had a dream, and I was about 20 years old. As some dreams can, it felt so real, and I felt as though I had my whole life ahead of me. I was planning out what I wanted to do with the next twenty years of my life. When I woke up, I was excited by the prospects of the plan. I woke up having my life all figured out. And then I realized I had already lived those 20 years. What I’ve done with those twenty years hasn’t been bad, but I will never have the opportunity, so far as I know, to relive them. What’s done is done. Perhaps this is why it’s so fun to dream yourself as being younger. It’s the closest way we’ll ever have to reliving our lives. That’s what it’s about, really. Reliving life – not just reliving the past. I have little interest in reliving my life...