Johns Hopkins Magazine
Johns Hopkins Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Search Get In Touch
   
A P R I L    2 0 0 9    I S S U E
The Big Question


Photo by
Mike Ciesielski
Q: Is April Really the Cruelest Month?
A: "I'd have to say yes. I'll have to make some tough decisions without the time needed to make them. Where I'm going to be next year is one of them — I've been accepted for interviews for teaching fellowships in Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., and will hear back in the next couple of weeks. They are two-year programs in which I'd both teach high school math or science in a high-needs school and take night classes to earn a master's in education.

"I'm really drawn to go someplace new, which is one of the reasons I came to Hopkins in the first place — because it was out of state. Most of the people from my high school went to University of Michigan or Michigan State. This decision is particularly hard because my boyfriend is only applying to law schools here. He's from Columbia, [Maryland,] and doesn't want to go out of state for law school.

"I'm taking 18 credits, which is the equivalent of six classes. In addition to the two required for my degree, I'm teaching a creative writing workshop at Roland Park Elementary, taking Intermediate Web Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art, a graduate seminar on the anti-novel, and a media studies class where I write for Radar Redux, an online arts and culture journal. I spend a lot of time at the Digital Media Center — it's one of the few places I'm productive. On top of that, I volunteer at Barclay Elementary library once a week, and I'm creating a Web site for them. Monday nights, I have a News-Letter editors meeting, and on Tuesday, I edit the Cartoon, Etc. page. Then there's daily life in general — grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning the house. I wish I had enough time to make it to my yoga classes and watch The Colbert Report regularly.

"All of it gets harder in April. All of a sudden you have papers due. Before you might have been able to get away with putting off reading for a night, but you don't have time now. There's just more pressure to get everything done.

"Oh, and I have to be prepared for what will happen when my lease is up on May 31. By the end of April, I have to be prepared to move."

Brigitte Warner, a Detroit native, is a Writing Seminars major at Johns Hopkins. She'll be graduating in May.
— Interview by Catherine Pierre

Return to April 2009 Table of Contents

  The Johns Hopkins Magazine | 901 S. Bond St. | Suite 540 | Baltimore, MD 21231
Phone 443-287-9900 | Fax 443-287-9898 | E-mail jhmagazine@jhu.edu