This is the first of a two part series on my memoir-focused blog, An Apple Between the Trees. It focuses on why over when. Change the "When will she leave journalism?" to "Why did she leave?" Sometimes we're too scared to ask why. via Why Over When
Author: Corrie's Mom
They say teacher turn over is high right now, and many teachers will leave the profession in five years or less. I will enter my seventh year as a full-time teacher, and my 12th year in education after I'd started as a sub and teacher assistant. I was the student in the 1990s you did not want in your classroom because I was diagnosed with ADHD and did not know how to socialize with other kids. I was due to be tested for autism, but this was considered an ostracizing experience for a child then, especially a girl. I am a third generation teacher and author of seventeen creative works.
Monsters in the Closet
This is something I wrote on my other blog about being a mom and teaching. The struggle is real in teaching right now, and we often get vague ideas as to why. No one is talking about the depth of it. I finally lay my story down in the hopes someone will get something from… Continue reading Monsters in the Closet
Refocus on Mental Illness
#mentalillnessawareness #autism #mentalhealth #getoverthehump #GOH #depression #DepressionArmyStrong via Refocus on Mental Illness
Refocus on Mental Illness
I have played with a memoir on and off for five to six years. So much to write: being a parent of a child with autism, family rejection, the non-cliche 32 year age difference between my husband and me, social rejection, being pregnant while working two jobs during graduate school, my career, and postpartum depression. I… Continue reading Refocus on Mental Illness
From Fiction to Prose Poetry
My husband said, to my family's horror, the poet has gone into the cave this week. I didn't grade or check my work email. I let the most essential part of myself, the author, fly free. I love teaching, but so much of myself has to be constrained. It goes with the professional atmosphere, and… Continue reading From Fiction to Prose Poetry
Shifting Focus
I won't always have a lot of time to write, not like when I was in college the first time. It's spring break. Much to my family's terror, the long buried artist has returned to make the claim on time and writing. For so many years, I've pushed down my first love, writing, so… Continue reading Shifting Focus
Some Memories and Prose Poetry
I am still here. It is a miracle. I have not had the time to submit writing for publishing as I did during graduate school and before my daughter was born. Even in graduate school, I had to squeeze in the writing and editing time. My writing tends to focus on doing the writing and… Continue reading Some Memories and Prose Poetry
Parting with Anger
I've written about anger before ... In poems for my memoir .... Anger's Beginning Anger itself is not violent, but when left to fester, it can become a hurricane sweeping through the Caribbean to Florida up through my home state, South Carolina. Those storms are never forgotten. The reason I write about my experience with… Continue reading Parting with Anger
Longer Than Six Weeks: A Mom’s Journey
There is also the fear of: How will I work at the rate I did before? Will I be what I was before?
What is “Never Saw Jesus in the Mirror”?
I took seven-and-a-half-years to write my novel, Sons of the Edisto. Like a friendship begun in childhood, I have scribbled different narratives and poems about my journey from journalism into motherhood and teaching. It might sound mundane at first, but ... Some had to do with my relationship with my husband. Some poems were about my… Continue reading What is “Never Saw Jesus in the Mirror”?
Corrie's Season 