#2 - author's note on vignette

i am not from philadelphia. i grew up in the suburbs of new york city, in nassau county on long island. i live in philly for a little under 3 years during which i helped gentrify a couple different neighborhoods, writing music and bussing plenty of tables while i was at it. it should be noted that while the piece at times attempts to humorously reflect on race as it functions within a city landscape, it is an issue that i reflect in a serious way on daily.  i believe that gentrification is unequivocally an act of violence that i need not necessarily take part in; accordingly my current living arrangements (some bullshit too expensive converted factory space in bushwick) speak volumes as to the extent that i'm willing to address the issue --- apparently, it's all fun to do creative work that addresses the problem with which i am directly involved in, but it need not translate to my actual behavior (here i am, gentrifying brooklyn).

at any rate, i think i quite like the piece. the only thing i'm concerned about is the (possibly) two dimensional representation of the woman in question, especially as she is all but explicitly identified as a woman of color. this is an issue i might like to discuss in peer review, had i turned the assignment in on time.

#1 - introduction

my name is simon tangney. at 25, i'm a little older than most of the class. though i'm generally a liberal arts major, i have much more specific goals. i want to work in public education, specifically at the post-secondary level. though i have a real interest in teaching, i would like to eventually work in an administrative capacity - hopefully one day being in a position to design and implement curriculum. in pursuit of this, i am in the process of applying to the CUNY Baccalaureate program, in which I'd be able to tailor a major to my interests and hopefully setting myself up in a positive way for graduate studies.  

i also work full time in a restaurant, which i truly enjoy as well. i bartend and wait tables at a Sichuan restaurant on the upper west side. i'd worked for the owner in philadelphia as well and admire the manner in which the business is run, even if what i like most about it is its occasionally haphazard happenings. 

this is technically my first creative writing class at LAGCC though i had a professor last semester who taught his ENG 102 class as if it were in fact, a creative writing class. i write music, with special attention to the lyrics, so i have a real interest the ways in which words work together. longer prose doesn't come as naturally to me so i'm excited to develop my skills in this way. 

i tend to be a little crass and casual in my work, though i would be comfortable toning it down for the classroom setting if i were asked to.