A Piece of Grad School

As some of you know, I am currently enrolled in a master's degree program through the University of Alabama. They send a professor down four times a year to give us a whirlwind graduate course in two weeks. Friday was the last day of my last class. Since Jess and I have been so incredibly busy these last few weeks, I thought I would share something I wrote for that class. We read the poem Where I'm From (click to read the original) by George Ella Lyon, and were told to write our own. I only had 7 minutes to write, so take that into consideration while you read. I don't think this would be ready to be published just yet. Enjoy!

Where I'm From

I am from Wisconsin
Land of beer, brats, and cheese
Summers by the lake,
soaking up the sun, laying on the boat.
Winters in the snow,
with red cheeks and noses
coming in to warm by the fire.

I am from the land,
farmers are my heritage
growing corn and cows
picking strawberries with Grandma
or watching the tractor with Grandpa

Brothers, sister, cousins, all together
a noisy bunch we were
We still get together,
although less each passing year.

Moving from country to town
was hard for all of us.
Little league, flag football, track and field
Sports became almost all we knew
Seasons were not winter, spring, summer or fall,
but cross country, wrestling, track and softball

I'm from homemade cakes and cookies
never from a box or store
Crisp fall apples made into applesauce
country food at its best.