Hello everyone!
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember my mentions of applying for writing-related summer programs and awaiting my admissions decisions. I was waitlisted at the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference in early March, and I was still waiting on my decision to the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop. If you’re interested in hearing an update on that, as well as a general update on what’s going on with summer programs/activities in the time of COVID-19, keep on reading.
First, a quick disclaimer: I do not want to sound self-centered in this post and I am fully aware that there are people in much tougher situations than me/impacted by the virus a lot more directly and I do not mean to take away from that. I am just sharing an update on another thing that the coronavirus has impacted and how that affects me personally. As you might guess from the title of this post and the direction things have been going with the coronavirus, the Kenyon Young Writers Workshop was sadly cancelled for this year. I think the most frustrating part for me was just that they didn’t even release official decisions, so I don’t even know if I would’ve gotten in or not. I understand why they did this as it wouldn’t be useful to get people upset or worked up over a program that was cancelled anyways, but I worked hard on my application and would’ve liked to know what they thought of it.
I haven’t heard back from the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference as to if I got accepted off of the waitlist. In the original admissions decision email, the main date to watch for a waitlist acceptance was April 6th, so I think it’s safe to say I will not be attending. I’m assuming it will probably end up being cancelled anyways since so many other summer programs are, so I’m sorry to anyone who was lucky enough to get accepted and planned on attending.
I actually ended up applying to two more summer programs that I didn’t mention on this blog, simply because I’ve only recently applied to them during these quarantine times. I applied to the CSPA journalism workshop hosted at Cal Poly, and I actually found out only a week after I applied that I got in! I sadly was forced to decline my offer of admission since they needed a non-refundable deposit by April 6th, and I was still waiting to hear from Kenyon and possibly an update from Sewanee. Lastly, I applied to The Adroit Journal‘s Summer Mentorship Program. It’s super competitive (even more competitive than I thought when I decided to apply… yikes) but I love Adroit and it sounded awesome (and corona-proof since it’s all online and remote) so I just kinda went for it. I’m not sure when I’ll hear back from them, but my hopes are not very high.
So, what does this all mean? I’m obviously disappointed that I won’t have the opportunity to get away from home by myself and experience the immersive atmosphere of Kenyon or Sewanee’s programs, but I know that there’s much bigger problems in the world and I’m privileged just to have gotten the chance to apply. I’m praying that coronavirus’s threat calms down by summer what with all our efforts to stay home and flatten the curve so that I can utilize one or multiple of the backup summer plans I originally thought of (summer job, internship, taking dual-enrollment classes at my local community college, volunteering, etc.), and just for the sake of everyone’s health and safety. That being said, if summer ends up being a big quarantine-fest as well, I guess I’ll just have plenty of time to write and blog, continuing the creative pursuits that I’ve been spending time doing so far.
For anyone who was lucky enough to secure their summer plan of choice or get accepted into their dream summer program, I am so sorry if it has been cancelled or impacted in some other way by coronavirus. That doesn’t diminish your accomplishment, and just know that your abilities or talent aren’t confined to a program or internship offer anyways. We’re all in this together, and we’ll all be finding alternative ways to pursue what we love at home during these strange and trying times. Stay safe and healthy.
Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 