Overwatered Classes

Abstract

Have you ever wondered when you started stressing so much or when you lost your focus and began grieving what once was? I have found that is part of being human, and I believe it is time to explore those topics and discuss them openly to understand ourselves, and our youth, better. My chapbook, “Overwatered Classes” discusses the impact of stress on a student’s education and how a broken system can emphasize or overlook difficulties in mental health. By comparing the natural world to students, I hope to help readers who desire to understand their world and their community in a more personal way. An abundance of societal and scholarly stress and a shortage of resources leaves students overburdened, or overwatered, with expectations that aren’t their own. My aspiration for this project is to start a dialogue about the stigma of stress impacting human experiences. While writing about my own experiences in the education system, I analyzed which of my experiences are not singular, but scarily common among students. I hope this will help me and my colleagues be better educators in the future but the poetry is for a wider audience. This chapbook is written for anyone who is ready to confront topics considering traumatic experiences, grief, and common disabilities. Some of the heavy subject matter discusses the cycle of frustration or depression with a bleak outlook but I believe it can have a positive end. “Overwatered Classes” is written for most students, educators, and anyone who seeks to understand and support those having difficulty. Most of all it is for anyone who is fighting to understand their own battles, as I once was. You can be understood and deserve patience, if not from others than from yourself.