Opening Statement

Where to begin about me.  Well, I suppose I could say thank you to anyone who decides to read this first and foremost - after all, affording some of your own time to share with my ramblings is very selfless of you, and is appreciated by me.  It's of course hard to convey in a public forum (no matter how minute a public forum it may be) who I am, or more specifically, why you should be interested in who I am.  To begin, my name is Matt Catania.  I am currently a student at Eastern Michigan, in the Creative Writing program.  To say I knew I would be saying that about myself even two years ago would be a lie.  Two years ago, I was wasting my time fighting Kent State University, back near where I grew up in Ohio.  When I graduated college, my first choice of college was Ohio University.  Not because I wanted to go there, but because I was chasing a girl.  It was a silly dream I realize now.  After one year at OU, I left and went home.  I couldn't stand being away from home.

At Kent State, and for the next...four or so years, I spent my time dabbling in math, history, and finally english.  I can't properly explain, however, the distain I have for that school.  From the commute to the staff to the programs they offered, Kent State was the definition of bad college to me.  Granted, EMU shares a few of the same characteristics, as I imagine many colleges do, but Kent State will always hold a special place in my heart as the worst college experience I could've had.  When I was there, I felt truly lost.

To keep myself from rambling any more, and to fulfill my obligations for this assignment, I will make the next few years of my school life shorter.  I met my girlfriend back home in Ohio.  We fell in love.  She couldn't stay in Ohio anymore, she had just graduated from Hiram college and was working a shitty job.  She had to do something more; she decided to get her Masters.  I was still wasting my time going nowhere in school; she got accepted into the graduate program at EMU for Art Management.  I said I'd go with her.  I found the Creative Writing program here, and assumed it would be perfect for me to finish my schooling with.  After all, writing, reading, immersing myself in poems and poetry is the one thing I could see myself finishing school with.  So far, the Creative Writing program hasn't provided me with what I wanted, but I will be done soon.  Hopefully.

So here I am.  That took a little longer than it should have, and I apologize for that.  Regardless of my experience at EMU so far, it will not deter me from exuding my best effort for this class.