A Day in the Life of a Creative Writing Major

Portrait of Caitlyn BucknerBackstrom

~by Caitlyn BucknerBackstrom

Hello everyone!

My name is Caitlyn and I am a junior (soon to be senior) who is pursuing a dual degree in Cultural Anthropology and Creative Writing. Along with school, I have a part-time job at a veterinary hospital and two editorial internships. All of this keeps me very busy but that is the life of a college student! My day is typically broken into morning, classes, afternoon, and night. Let’s get started!

Morning:

Caitlyn's breakfast and a book

This morning I reluctantly left my warm bed (why is it so cold in the morning?) and got ready for my day. Then, I made myself a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast which I ate while studying for my first class. By the time I was done cleaning up my kitchen, I had to give my cat some quick love, and hop into my car to get to campus.

 

Classes:

After finding a parking spot (not always easy!) I made my way to the Clark building for my first class, “Archeology of Mesoamerica.” We spent the hour and a half discussing the Aztec religion and its practices.

Archeology of Mesoamerica class

Then I hopped over to Eddy Hall for my “Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction” class. There we had a presentation on using musical tracks to set the mood as you write (if you’ve never done this I recommend it!) and we workshopped a piece of flash fiction that I wrote.

Next, it was back over to Clark for “Critical Studies of Popular Texts: Science Fiction.” Here we discussed Afrofuturism and its influence on Octavia Butler’s novel Dawn which I had just finished reading the night before.

Critical Studies of Popular Texts: Science Fiction class

Finally, to finish off classes, I had “Shakespeare II” where we examined Act I of All’s Well That Ends Well, as well as quickly chatting about our final essay topics.

 

Afternoon:

Caitlyn's homework

From campus, I went to Happy Lucky’s Tea House in Old Town where I enjoyed a lovely green tea and lemon poppy seed bread as I worked on assignments due next week and articles for my internships.

After (mostly) finishing my work, I moseyed home for a quick yoga workout and some dinner. Then it was back to campus for a reading by Devin Murphy.

 

Night:

Devon Murphy Reading

For a full overview of Devin’s reading, you can check out this article.

To end my day I headed home to watch a show on Netflix before showering and falling asleep in order to do it all over again the next day.

I hope this gave you an idea of what life is like as a Creative Writing major at CSU, and of course, if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me!

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