June 2004

Alex Suha • The Creative Approach

My neighbors are pounding on the wall. I guess some idiots will just drift through their lives without a single book fight. Book warfare is a lot like trench warfare: deadlocked, sparse artillery, and random pointless charges. God, Stages of Drama is a huge book. My drama text from last semester, that mother flew slow. One thousand pages of WMD to your face. The bookshelf in the hall has been violated, stripped of its fruits with malice and savage bloodlust. Now, the hallway is a theatre of devastation. Cover art and broken spines dot the plain.

School’s out.

Nothing to do now: no shows, six-page papers, appointments with an advisor—not a single thing to do. We wake at 2:30. We live till 3. Or 4, or 5, or 2:30, ‘cause we’ve got nothing to do later. You can see things more vividly, the breath in your lungs is chilled and lighter somehow, and everyone on Clinton Street shines with that chill, that radiance.

Except Jennifer. Her paper on the abortion issue in some gender topics class is two weeks overdue, and she hasn’t started it. Sianis is my roommate, and she’s Sianis’s girlfriend. So, another roommate, Chris, suggests Jennifer call me for help with the paper.

I set out my terms: “For my services, I want a number 6, Dr. Pepper no ice, and a JBC. (Junior Bacon Cheeseburger). I will also require a #12 sandwich from JJ’s.(Jimmy Johns.).”

After pungent grease and guacamole, I look over the assignment.

"Present a clear and substantiated argument explaining your position on whether or not an abortion can be considered in favor of protecting life.”

I think Jennifer expected me to write the paper for her, or at least dictate it. She rolled her eyes, laughed in frustration, and rocked in her seat while I asked her questions.

"Jennifer, are you pro-life or pro-choice?”

"I’m neither. I don’t care about this really.”

"Ok. Me neither. But you still should do this paper.”

Now what? How would I bail myself out of this?

"Give me the sheet that describes the assignment.” I looked it over, and there on the back, three paragraphs down, was the magic word: Creative.

"They suggest that you be ‘creative.’ Jennifer, your assignment just got fun,” I said. "Ok, so you really don’t wanna read and write all this stuff ‘cause it’s not interesting, right? So instead, just write that, and journal the experience of encountering the discussion. Then share and describe your feelings and argument on the topic as it develops. Journal style.”

I like journaling. Jennifer obviously doesn’t.

"Come on. I thought you’re creative,” I said.

"But, Alex, I don’t care about abortion. I can’t be creative about this ‘cause it’s not something that I would normally think about.”

Then it came to me: “Dude, that’s perfect. That’s what they want you to do. That’s why you take those kinds of classes.”

Then more came: “Dude, that’s why you’re here. You come to college to get forced to think about stuff that you wouldn’t normally care about. They’re doing that so you can learn more about issues and train your thinking across different kinds of questions and viewpoints and stuff. Train it through foreign challenges. That’s why you come to college, to see the world a certain way, differently and closely.”

"Wow, Alex,” she said, “that’s really inspiring.”

This touching moment has been brought to you by the University of Iowa.

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