Hello, From the Edge of the World

Chapter One: "Does Anyone Remember the Due Date?"

Tick...tock... went the clock during the last few minutes of my English literature class. It's a steady and consistent rhythm that matches perfectly with the pencil drumming, the muffled yawning, and the quiet turning of the pages which told the students of the long lost and forgotten tales. Now if there is one required concept to know about me—the notoriously book-savvy Elspeth— is that I am an escapist. While many people find this to be nerdy, I consider myself to be one of the lucky few people who have access to a better world, or at least a place where other people acknowledge and appreciate stories that are supposedly irrelevant. Finding friends in college has become a weird grey area between easy and difficult, with common ground and communication being as old as the stars in the sky as well as the books in the library. While sitting in my assigned seat, I thought to myself, "even the air seems heavy with anticipation over the upcoming essay project, I wonder if it is the good kind or the bad kind?"

The anticipation in the air was suddenly dissolved into physical words, spoken courtesy of our university-renowned professor, Dr. Quill. Sometimes I think he might secretly be a modern-day wizard in disguise—if you follow me—like Radagast the Brown from The Hobbit, but with more book smarts and less bird poop. Maybe it's his Scottish accent. Even before he spoke, I knew why there would be uncertainty in the air today, because our syllabus stated that we would begin reading one young adult novel and one classic fantasy novel, which ironically turned out to be The Hobbit. I've heard of this young adult novel too, mostly because I picked it off of the library's shelf in the sixth grade by chance and have never put it down since. It's an obscure British fantasy book called The Edge Chronicles: Beyond the Deepwoods. Anyways, after reading these books, I think we might be assigned a lengthy essay, but I'm not usually daunted by those either. I've written too many arguable-defensible thesis statements for this professor to panic now.

Accompanied by his iconic plaid kilt, he began to explain the rules of the assignment: "Here are a few things to keep in mind while reading these stories," he said, raising his voice for everyone to hear. "For our final creative writing project coming up, you must pay attention to descriptive writing, themes, symbolism, the similarities and differences between modern fantasy and classic fantasy, and how Joseph Cambelle's theory of Monomyth affects each book. If you have any questions, please let me know in advance, because this paper is one of the most difficult projects to succeed in. However, the level of difficulty is worth it, because you will face this same paper in other classes or on scholarship applications. The due date is the third time we meet before winter break." Again, to me, this type of paper is no small assignment, but it is nothing I haven't written before. But then, the time to panic came about three seconds later when he suddenly said, "To make this process of drafting easier, I am pairing everyone up with a partner for peer reviewing. Be sure you get your partner's contact information now, because you will be working with them every day this semester during class."

Panicking internally, I looked around the room at my burnt-out classmates, and prayed that I would not be paired up with the boy across from me who goes to drinking parties as frequently as I talk about fantasy books. Or that I would not end up with a rich, stuck-up sorority girl who might ditch me because I can talk about how Edward Cullen from Twilight was actually inspired from the knight in The Franklin's Tale. Now that's the arguable-defensible thesis statement I should write a paper on: "Is it better to have a partner who is always hungover and forgets to start his work, or a partner who refuses to do the work because their social status is more important?" It's an impossible choice I tell you, and there are not enough words in the English language to answer this question in eight to eleven pages. I start to take notes on it, but soon realize that my pen is out of ink, yet again.

Lo and behold, I get the sorority girl. Everyone knows Nicole Cunningham. She's known to the public as the President of the Panhellenic council and the girlfriend to the most popular frat boy on campus—but popularity in Greek Life is not all it's cracked up to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally anti-Greek life, but when you're bullied out of a good sorority experience because you compared an old, white "vampire" to an old, white "human," you become a little bitter. Wanting to sit at the cool kids table doesn't matter now though, because I have bigger concerns ahead. Luckily for me, I do know a few other outliers that have similar experiences, which is a comforting thought. Unfortunately, none of them are in this class. But even still, I cannot escape this assignment, nor do I want to fail this paper. I have to make the best of a bad situation, and the best solution is to invite her to meet up for my study group session in the library.

I started my study group of bookworms, film enthusiasts, and tea-drinkers last semester as way to rebuild lost communication and find common ground with people. And it's my biggest hope that we will eventually meet up and hangout as a full group, but lately it has just been one-on-one sessions, despite my best efforts to promote the need for good group conversations. Maybe the old, dead classic authors really did have something to say to an extent, because the new generation can't seem to see past our differences enough to have a thoughtful discussion with more than one person. Before I started attending university three years ago, I remember looking at a meme that stated, "college is literally just you, your laptop, and your water bottle against the world." And for a moment while looking at this quote, I believed it. But nowadays, I am forced to remind myself often to live in the present moment, which in this case happens to be with my study group in the library's English department.

For the five of us who are majoring in some form of English—or in other words literature, writing, linguistics, and education—the library can be a safe haven of books, which is accompanied by the cold air conditioning and quiet clicking of keyboards. We're always looking for diversity in our session, and inviting Nicole was the perfect opportunity for her and for us to meet someone new. After mustering up the guts to talk to Nicole, I finally just blurted out exactly what I wanted to say: "Since we are going to be partners for the rest of the semester, would you like to come to my study group session right after class? It's pretty chill, we usually grab tea from Poseidon and meet at the third floor of the library to discuss what we are working on." She blinked, and looked at me like I had interrupted her plans to skip class with her boyfriend by using my nerdy mind-control powers. Panicking, I retaliated by saying "just kidding! Did you know about some Harry Styles music video premier party happening in the library's music section? Apparently, he dresses up like a dead fish covered in glitter to protest the overconsumption of sushi. Would you like to come with me?" after a few more nerve-wracking seconds of eye contact, she responded with, "I guess I can make an exception this once, even though I've already watched it."

If you haven't guessed it by now, the "totally real premier party" is a recruitment trick I picked up from when I used to be in a sorority. I call it, "be involved in someone else's interests so that they will go along with whatever you want them to do." I like listening to Harry Styles, and I never said I didn't, but can you imagine a world where two people tried to learn about each other's interests instead of having a one-sided friendship? This trick works every time, and now we just need to learn to be genuinely involved in other people's interests, instead of being fake. I sometimes wondered if someone like Nicole secretly felt the same way as me, and also thought about those who longed to find an escape from this world and its tricks.