Deadlines by Annie Q.Syed

True or False? There is more time for a teacher to work on her own writing during the summer.

False!

Fact: Often the freedom that comes during summer also brings forth a to-do that has been pushed back throughout the teaching year. Dentist appointments (“Yes, really, any time works!”), donating clothes (“Can’t believe I wanted to give these away! Let’s try them on one more time!”), fixing that broken household item (“Must make a trip to True Value!” …and while at True Value: “Oh look! That would be great in the garden!”), replacing the water filter in the fridge (“Let’s see if I can order it online…” And then proceed to that bookmarked blog from October about Halloween costumes for teachers), returning whatever’s in that bag (“I know I put the receipt somewhere in that drawer…” to organizing all the drawers!), family visits, and this desire to do absolutely nothing. All of a sudden time shrinks and it appears that there is hardly any time and soon it’s back-to-school chats and in-service e-mails. The only constant for me throughout the year is reading. I am a voracious reader and nothing gets in the way of that. But writing?

The antidote to the aforementioned is none other than DEADLINES!

I have had the privilege of being a student every summer for the last four summers as part of the Bread Loaf School of English. Once summer begins, it isn’t too long before I am hanging my “teacher hat” for my “student/writer hat”: deadlines, research, first drafts, peer-feedback, classroom dynamics, etc. This summer I graduate from a program that has shaped me as a reader-writer-researcher who loves to inspire a love of research, reading, and writing.

Additionally, I am always on the lookout for a writing workshop for my creative writing. Some summers this means an online course and other times I get to travel. Traveling is a big part of my summer writing identity and even if I can’t always go overseas, driving over to the next town to explore it with a new lens, often literally, suffices.



Annie Q. Syed is a reader and writer who teaches full time in New Mexico. Her stories, Collection of Auguries, were published in 2013. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Fiddlehead, Fictive Dream, Burning House Press, Tahoma Literary Review, Ellipses Zine, Blue Fifth Review, The Bangor Literary Journal, Afreada, and in Reflex Fiction anthology. You can find more of her writings and thoughts at www.anniesyed.com or follow her reading and travel tweets @so_you_know.