I sit here today, $70,900.36 in student loan debt. That is the reason for this book Wanderer Thinking.
How many sleepless nights have we college grads spent researching, writing, and editing for an A grade? Sure, we may or may not achieve the desired outcome, but we learned something along the way, did we not? What gets produced from that hard work to me, is very valuable. Every single day in college was its own short story. This thought came to me as an epiphany of sorts. Here I am with a journal full of thoughts, notebooks of old essays, and short stories just collecting dust. Sitting on my desk and dusty bookshelves were countless stories. A test with a C on it from when I didn’t study. There was a great story behind that average letter grade. A great lesson sat there in red pen on that test. A great experience was staring me right in the face waiting to be formulated into something for others to learn from.
More About Wanderer Thinking
Wanderer Thinking was developed out of placing more value on my work than on a professor’s grade. A grade that, in all honesty, I owe $70,900.36 to have received. Most of the stories and poems in Wanderer Thinking were, at some point, actual class assignments. But a lot of that work submitted was born out of real-life experiences. Not the life experience that college teaches but the ones we as young adults get while growing into our full maturity.
What was not a classroom assignment stemmed from journal entries that began ten years before I even thought about college. I was already building value just from the reflection of experiences. These experiences could help someone else, whether they would be used as motivation. Or read and used as an example of how to challenge modern thoughts. Things I journaled about were therapeutic to me at the time.
Something that helped me can’t just sit in a room and collect dust. Wanderer Thinking is an example of taking what you worked and sacrificed for and doing something with it other than for a professor’s approval. Aside from any of the poems written in it, it is more about believing in oneself. The fact that something like this is published in the first place represents what we all know to be true. We are all unique. We all have a story to tell. We all have the ability to achieve something even if told that we will not. This is the first of many books to come, but Wanderer Thinking will remain unique in one way. It will forever represent when I decided to believe in my abilities, talent, and artistic contribution to the world.
My Inspirations
Even as I sit here typing this article, I think of another poem I want to write. Something that has to do with the unseen forces of nature and how we sometimes need to let fate dictate our lives. I gripe about my student loan debt, but when I think deeper, I begin to connect a few dots. Prior to college, I came across Native Son by Richard Wright. There was a scene in the book that I related to so much I began to cry. I cried so hard I couldn’t see the pages anymore, but it inspired me also to write. The next day I went to the grocery store and picked up a notebook. At the time, I did not know it would turn into part of Wanderer Thinking.
Here I sit writing this article, and I still get inspired by something over ten years ago. Thinking of how the world puts things in our life for us to either use or let fall by the wayside back into the cosmos. Shortly after purchasing that first notebook, I went off to college, where I was introduced to Jack Kerouac through his book On the Road. This book led me to what I now believe my writing style to be. I’ll be the first to admit I am not a polished writer in any sense of the word.
In fact, my degree is not in anything literature related. I often felt frustrated with the end results when I wrote in my notebook. All I knew about poetry was that it was supposed to rhyme. Or so I thought. The jazz era is one of my favorite time periods as well, mainly the bebop era. I loved that jazz style because it didn’t follow any main rhythm but instead moved to its own pace while simultaneously blending with the timing of the overall beat. This music is where I first learned about syncopation, and it blew my mind listening to people like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. My professor told us that some critics did not initially receive Jack Kerouac’s book well. I learned they did not like his writing style. He was a lot like other authors I came to love.
My Aspirations
People like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. They often wrote in what I believe was a syncopated rhythm. When I read On the Road, I suddenly could hear the bebop songs playing in my head as well. I realized at that moment that my writing style was not intended to be formal. It was not in me as a person. I was in my 20s at the time. Rebellious in nature and thirsting for what life had to offer. Sitting in that college course, I made the decision from that point forward to let the words flow through me unto the paper instead of forcing them. I decided that literary rules were ok, but I would not let myself be so focused on them that I couldn’t express my art. I sit here now and think to myself that $70,900.36 is a low price to pay for helping to connect the dots of my life journey.
It is my hope you all enjoy my work. It is available right now on Amazon in both paperback and ebook forms. I am open to any feedback and will happily discuss any of the topics in the book on my Twitter page. Peace, love, and happy writing.
