"My main motivation was the opportunity to get out of the tractor that I had been confined to all summer long. I had no idea that I would meet some of the most interesting people I had come across in a while."
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Quinn Weedon, OCU English Sophomore
When I agreed to be a Resident Advisor (RA) at the Smokewood Institute for Young Writers, my main motivation was the opportunity to get out of the tractor that I had been confined to all summer long. I had no idea that I would meet some of the most interesting people I had come across in a while.
There were nine students all around 15 to 18 years old. They were clever, creative, and ornery in the best possible way. It was an easy job for me since they were all pretty self-sufficient kids. They went to class during the day while I went to the gym or lounged by the pool doing some writing of my own. In the evening, I got to tag along on their field trips to poetry readings or the art museum. When we weren't on field trips, I showed movies and held writing studios. I even got to sit in on a class where they made their own mini comic books. After they made copies, we took the bus to a local comic book store and left the mini comics there. It was a way to get their work out into the public without having to be published first.
I wish that I had the opportunity to attend Smokewood as a high school student. I imagine that I would be strides ahead of where I am now in my writing. All of the students in the first Smokewood class were challenged as writers. They also got the experience of living on a college campus and taking classes and making new friends (including me).
