Youth

My novel excerpt was workshopped today. It was very helpful. I'm going to let the thing sit for a few months and return to short stories, but really, this means it was very helpful.

Everyone in the Writers program has told me I look about 18. So I've gotten used to feeling like a young'in here, as some nebulous, ill-defined "they" say. But when lifting weights this afternoon in the school's gym (the weather gods are playing a cruel joke on the northeast, and I couldn't possibly run in 9000% humidity), with gangster rap music blaring, I made one final pull on the rowing machine and thought, I am old.