Stan Robinson visited us on the first day and gave us a shocker of a challenge, in front of our first teacher, Greg Frost, his Clarion-mate and friend.

“Skip class,” he said, only half jokingly. “Socialize. You will never have this experience again to be with these 18 other people. Spend as much time with them as possible.”

As the year has gone by, Emily, I’m glad I took some of what he said to heart. You can always be in your room and write–and you should chuck out at least 4 stories while you are there–but don’t neglect these amazing future writers you will be living with. Hang out on their couches and talk science fiction, talk about your stories, go to the beach, go grocery shopping together, have water wars, draw chalk circles, drink beer.

This time is precious. Yeah, go write your heart out! I never got more done than in those six weeks. But I also treasure the time I spent with my group. We had suites, so we had three other roomies, and the four of us got close. We would go over ideas with each other. So, we weren’t just goofing off together; we bounced ideas, rewrote things, edited them, played games.

It was a womb of science fiction and fantasy creativity. And everyone was a part of the birth and growth of everyone else. The teachers watched over us and gave us advice, but we were left to grow together.

I envy you, and hope you have a wonderful time!