Novella Salon No. 10: Change

Image taken from www.novella.nyc

Hey Readers,

In honor of the first day of fall, I wanted to share with you all a poem I wrote recently about the changing seasons/passing months and what feelings and experiences they have brought me. I went to a storytelling salon in NYC recently, hosted by Novella (@novella.nyc), and attendees were to come in with a poem, short-story, memoir, or whatever form of writing that moved them in response to the prompt: change (I will post the prompt at the end of this blog post, so if you wish to respond to it you can.) I have been following Novella on social media for a while, but this was my first "salon". In preparation for the event, I was pushed to start writing again. I hadn't written for a while – not since the summer – and I forgot how natural writing felt to me. My heart was happy. I hope you enjoy my piece and find some comfort, solace in it or at least can relate if you are going through something similar. If, like me, you have a little writer in you wanting to leap out, I suggest you start writing and feed that part of your soul. Maybe you can start with this prompt *wink wink*. If you do, and you are comfortable sharing, I would love to read what you wrote and maybe chat about it. You can email at naydeme@gmail.com or DM me on Instagram.

My peer sharing group; Image taken from Novella

Without further ado, here it is: 

May

With you comes the excitement of summer

The anticipation of “freedom”

Limitless possibilities

New opportunities

Switching your usual order of a hot turtle mocha to “an ice coffee with a shot of maple, please” so that you know it’s real

Watching the sunrise against the backdrop of the New York City skyline as you fly into JFK

Mid-August

The anxiety of anticipating change arrives again

The bittersweet feeling of leaving something good for something that you hope is good

Sits on your chest from morning until the evening

The excitement around getting new school supplies is gone

But you always loved roaming through the aisles of simple cardboard notebooks

With so much potential to become your own

The hustle and bustle of a busy summer leaves you drained

But excited about all the possibilities the city has to offer and all the people you met along the way

Talking about your hopes and fears with a friend and new New Yorker at 10 p.m. at Vanessa’s Dumpling House

Fumbling with your luggage tag before boarding the plane back to school

Late-August

Feeling of unease in your single dormitory

Why do you feel like someone is watching you?

Chatty and giddy talking to new students who hold the same excitement you had your freshman year

Sobbing to yourself at 3 p.m.

You are posting about feeling down and wanting to hurt yourself on your Instagram Stories

Your friends are concerned

It’s the first day of classes

You can’t seem to be able to leave your dorm room

You sit quietly on the floor feeling nothing and everything

You call your advisor for help

You’ve been here for two years, why are you feeling like this now?

What changed?

This place that you used to call home no longer feels like home

You want to go home

September

You go home

You feel anxious

You feel guilty

Everyone’s going to think you are a “dropout”

Everyone’s thinking it already

Your cousins laugh because they think you thought you were better than them

Because you’re “getting a college degree”

You are not better than them

You have become the person you were trying to run from

But that’s not true

You are not a “dropout”

You are taking a break

You are ambitious and you are passionate

You will never stop

Chasing

Running

After what you want

And you will be okay

You are more than okay 

Candid of me; Image taken from Novella

If you've made it to this part, thank you for reading. Here's the original prompt if you wish to respond to it yourself (it's a great way to reflect on what changes the past month has brought you!):

As always, we invite you to respond to the prompt literally and figuratively: how we are constantly evolving as people, touching on the feeling of newness (back to school, anyone?) that comes with each September, and the transitional nature of seasons.. We want to know: what does "Change" mean to you? You may respond to the prompt in whichever literary method you please: song, poem, short story, script, etc. All we ask is that you keep your work limited to a maximum of 2 pages or 5-7 minutes spoken aloud.

Novella

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Xo, Naydeline