Beating the Calendar

I feel like I spend my life racing between meetings and wonder sometimes how I fit in any classes. This week began badly because we had an Admitted Student Day on Saturday. As the coordinator of the Film Studies Minor, I had to host a table, so I dragged myself out early and set up flyers and a tri-fold and greeted future students and their parents all morning. After some coffee and smiles, I actually started to enjoy myself. Sharing the minor courses and opportunities with teens from all over the state helped me appreciate our program, as well as the extracurricular activities we offer.

Just around the corner is our Central Illinois Feminist Film Festival, for example. A three-day celebration of films by professional and student filmmakers. We'll be showing two feature films: Fish Tank (2009) and Mosquita Y Mari (2014). But we'll also be screening winners of a film contest for student filmmakers from all over the world. While my students took a midterm in one of my classes today, I sorted through the hundreds of submissions we received, impressed to see films from countries from the US and Canada to Sweden, India, and Iran.

So despite my grumbles, meetings can sometimes be a productive way to connect with students and value the world we offer them here--classes, yes, but so much more. Film Festivals, students organizations, film screenings and contests, and opportunities to meet other students with interests just like theirs. In the meantime, I've written a poem about meetings that might help me cope with less energizing hours of business:

Doodle Poll (Calendar View)

She regrets

she’s unable to meet today.

Yesterday

she looked out over a low creek

turning into a heron

snaking between sumacs,

one of the bird people

gliding with starched cotton wings

thinking only

“I’m hungry”

as she dived.