Posted by Erin Carlo, Creative Nonfiction Reader for Issue 4.1
High school and college students are plagued with thoughts and concerns about the future. Speaking with someone who has experience in a field of interest can help alleviate the stress we experience as we face the unknown.
Thinking of my future invoked anxious feelings that began to tug at my normally lighthearted, happy presence. I started to feel uneasy, easily distracted, and irritated because I didn’t know what my “next step” would be.
I found myself on the Geneseo English department webpage, looking at requirements for my major, when I stumbled upon the profile of Tracy Strauss, a graduate of SUNY Geneseo and former English major. She sounded so nice, so happy, so successful! I wanted to know more about her, and how she got to this point. I reached out to Ms. Strauss and asked her if she would be willing to speak with me.
Tracy Strauss has been successful since graduating from Geneseo in 1996. She has been published in The Huffington Post, Salon, The Rumpus, xoJane, Poets & Writers Magazine, Writer’s Digest Magazine, WBUR’s Cognoscenti, The Feminist Wire, The Dodo, The Southampton Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, Beyond the Margins, and more. Ms. Strauss is currently a liberal arts and writing instructor at the New England Conservatory of Music Writing Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Continue reading