Lessons From the Abbey

The sudden and total chaos wrought by COVID-19 may end up being the defining event of my generation. Many, many, things were changed, and those changes have, unfortunately, endured even to this very day. I was a senior in high school when the powers that be stopped the world, and so it was from my parents' basement on Zoom that I composed, workshopped, and edited these pieces.

'Lessons from the Abbey' is the fruit of a young author's first extended academic study of creative writing as a whole. Theme, characters, and descriptive writing became areas of focus and practice, and some pieces drafted here went on to serve for the basis of other works and characters of later works (Lucy from "Sobriety" became Lucy Moore from You & Me; Jenn Young from "April's Fool" is the main character from a novel-in-progress).

'Lessons from the Abbey' was drafted at a time of great uncertainty. High school was coming to an end, college was on the horizon, and all the accompanying anxieties, stressors, and changes that followed were in the forefront of my mind. This was complicated immensely by the fact that we were all forced into isolation because of COVID. For all the bad that came from quarantine, it was exceptional to be able to sit and write without worry.

Perhaps my favorite piece of this portfolio is "My Dearest Daughter," which shares some inspiration with "Star in the Rain": the singer Aimer. "My Dearest Daughter," and actually "Sobriety," were written purely from my imagination, but somehow both turned out to be prophetic, in a way, and although they were written during 'Lessons from the Abbey,' I feel that they could fit in better with 'Under A Starry Sky.'

Nonetheless, I am proud of the work herein. I look back fondly on this time of my life, and many of the lessons I learned have continued to impact me to this very day. So unbutton your blazer, adjust your tie, and take your seat at the abbey school; the lesson is about to begin.