Boy Wonder to Man Wonder
 
I’ve been an English major here at Coastal Carolina for four incredible years. When I first came here, I originally wanted to do something with animals or marine science. But on my visit when I spoke to my advisor at the time, she told me that I’d have to do all these sciences and I immediately checked out on that idea. As much as I love animals, I’m a better writer so naturally English was my number two choice and at the time, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with my major. I started off just trying to build a balance for a life of my own, a way to prove to myself that I can be my own man and escape my brother John’s academic shadow. Being an English major is hard work but it can also be fun at the same time. You read so much interesting literature that you get overwhelmed with great ideas and multiple questions that I, myself the reader, have to answer. The hard work is keeping up with paper deadlines, although it has a date in a syllabus which doesn’t seem like a big deal. You don’t know sometimes what else you’ll have in the future for other classes and what else will be due that day as well. Throughout my career in Coastal, I met multiple professors whose passion for their work and subject have changed my dynamic of thinking and have helped build myself into a more academic student.
 
Being an English major doesn’t mean you want to be an English teacher or love to read all texts. It means to me that you can read, write, and are able to understand the in depth thinking it takes to analyze both texts and films. When I first started here I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with this major nor did I care for being an English teacher either. But my first English class was the first class on my schedule when I started in August and my whole class was a bunch of English majors and a couple of people who were undecided. The class was entertaining and from my first paper’s grade I knew it was only going to get harder. I scored a 78 because of my grammar, which was awful- pretty rough to start out with my first grade in college being a C minus.  My next obstacle was taking a class that had a workshop assignment in it. I never did a workshop before and with my horrible grammar and last minute attitude, I wasn’t looking forward to it.  I’ve always been told I have a creative mind, so writing stories isn’t hard and I was nervous because correcting grammar came hard to me. In my years to follow, I wouldn’t have the greatest workshop experiences, it was never easy and life struggles jumped in my way often.
The first time doing a workshop, on the day before my actual workshop date, I had to hand out copies of my own paper to my fellow English majors who eagerly waited to read whatever concoction I’d written. That day in class, I got there and my classmates were sitting around an empty room. I sat down and listened while I reread my work, then I heard one person announce
“hey guys, little heads up: If I don’t like your piece, I’m going to say it and also be a bitch about it.” So my first thought was “Great.  I’m screwed.” My first strike was miscounting the copies I printed out that day and my second was when I found out that my professor at the time marked me as unprepared and that cost me my grade and damaged my already crippling self-esteem at that moment. That professor at the time seemed nice but she was one of the most horrible human beings I met in my Coastal journey. She seemed very polite to the point that she treated us like middle school students, instead of college. She told me that I couldn’t make up any work that I missed and that there was literally nothing I could do at that time, all with a smile. I understand that proper grammar builds and structures the narratives, but other factors outside the classroom really held me down academically. Attendance crippled me at first on my journey to becoming a better English major and better writer. At first it was laziness mixed with health and sometimes the two strains intertwined.
The next semester I took 19 credits to jam pack my schedule and that meant no breaks and all work. At Coastal, it’s hard to balance life, especially for me when I was just starting out in a place I haven’t explored nor did I have to answer to anyone but myself. Freedom of answering to authorities is hard for some people who have been sheltered and are used to being told what to do. Now it was up to me and no one’s else, to put in the time studying, reading, and rereading every piece of literature and every chapter needed to pass my class with fly colors. All that studying paid off, when those 19 credits went by so fast, and easy that I had thought I conquered the school to life balance so early in my college career. My parents were happy with me for now
 
The next semester my luck finally started to run out when I failed my first English course which was English 462 Writing Workshop- Fiction. It was in spring semester and was taught by Jason Ockert. Back then, sophomore me was too cool for school especially a class that didn’t get out until 4 or 5 o’clock. His class was fun the few times I went and ironically enough, the first class I failed was the class that made me know what I wanted to do with my major after college.
 
I wanted to write comic books but more specifically, for Marvel or DC comics. Professor Ockert was this wacky, crazy hyped up guy and he was so excited to teach and no matter what you said, he was happy for you and made you want to be more excited like him. Needless to say, his happiness was contagious even though it wouldn’t last when I received my grade. The piece that I workshopped in that class was titled “The Boy with Fire for Skin” a short story I made up for a superhero that I saw on television with no origin story. I loved creating the journey for a boy that would later become a hero. It was great. I even researched how I would have done it professionally as a writer. The writers in Comics, write a script with notes and suggestion for the artist to draw. Al thought I didn’t have an artist, I still wrote up the script anyway. I never got that excited to write a story for class. It was right then and there I knew that this is what I wanted to do with my life and this major. That semester was like a downward spiral of a roller coaster when I got into a car accident and spent a night in the ER. During those moments I didn’t think of my safety, I thought of how I could write some insanely detailed superhero story for a Spider-man series. That semester was the stepping stone to the writer I wanted to be. It was just poor timing because I had test and papers due those days but sometimes you have to take what life throws at you.
 
That summer, I took an English class at Farmingdale University back home in Long Island. It was the swift kick in the ass that I needed to get back into the school flow. I was now facing academic probation, which meant if I didn’t get my GPA up, I was going to be kicked out and sent back to Long Island with some very disappointed parents and a sea of people that would ask me what I did wrong and why and how I plan to change it. But enough of that. I didn’t need to get sent back home with my tail between my legs and failing none the less. I planned on doing this on my own and actually seeing it through. My professor in my technical writing class grabbed my comic book interest in class when she mentioned how her husband was a writer for Superman comics. Instantly my work ethic changed in that hot summer class because I found a goal I needed to obtain.
 
The following semester I took all English courses and one of the professors gave me just the kind of kick in the ass, I needed it. I took English 300 with my advisor as my professor, which was a calming thought when you think that your advisor is grading your paper and they want you to succeed in life. Rebecca Childs has been the most helpful person in Coastal Carolina by far. She brought a funny realistic tone to the class and didn’t talk down to students in any way. Her professionalism is what you want in a professor so taking it easy wasn’t an option anymore. I’ve taken 3 courses with Rebecca Childs and all 3 have really helped me build and create a better voice in writing and a better work ethic. From that moment on I had to keep up in work and finally start balancing life again.
 
I’m stubborn and I wouldn’t let even myself stop me. I eventually went on to creating a podcast in my English 459 course taught by Christian Smith who was an amazing professor and understood how one can get caught up in college life and maintaining that balance. I made a podcast where I spoke about how Batman and the literary process blended. The class was fun for being 8an am and like all professors here, he kept the class alive. He once told us how he was going to teach a Kayne West class about composition and rhetoric but focusing on Kayne’s music. It was around that time that I started using Marvel and DC comics and utilizing them into a more academic background. That same semester I took Russian Literature with Anna Oldfield a professor here who taught a course in Magic Realism. This was another class where I found my knowledge of characters background in comic books came into play. The final paper, I wrote about the significant features that made Marvels X-Men fit into magic realism and then a short story using only Russian superheroes such as Colossus. Ray Moye, was an another professor who aided me at Coastal with his classes. They were challenging but at the same time, they weren’t stressful because he doesn’t believe in grades but the university is required he gives them anyway. He doesn’t have steady deadlines and when you’re taking four or six other courses, he is a great professor who really loves his work. He always reminded me of Leo from “That 70s Show” but loved Chaucer. He relates Chaucer in more modern times in terms of humor. He once said that a Chaucer story reminded him of a Chappell Show “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood” story. Another professor I had who I feel truly rocked my academic world was Tripthi Pillai. I remember meeting her during the first English major get-together and she stated that she loved Shakespeare and after taking one of her classes, you would too. Freshmen year me didn’t like Shakespeare and didn’t want to read Shakespeare and I said to myself “good luck lady.” I figured that I wouldn’t take any of her courses. Well I took two of her courses and I don’t love Shakespeare but I definitely have a different opinion on his plays and form of writing. Professor Pallia was spectacular and her English 424 class studied British literature and helped me write one of my best papers about DC comics Batman and Sherlock Holmes and how the two mirror each other but come from different cultures . I enjoyed her class a lot and it helped me build a better work ethic. I handed all my papers in on time and even did the midterm the day she assigned it to us instead of waiting for the last minute and sending in some mashed up junk.
 
Coastal Carolina has been my home for the last 4 years and I can honestly say I put my heart into my work, once I realized how useful my knowledge in Marvel and DC comics would be. Freshmen year I used to plan sick days, but now the actual sick days that happen are very rare. My work gets handed in on time, I check for proper grammar, and I hope to someday use what I learned here and apply it to the field of comic booking writing. I plan to use my Coastal knowledge to better educate men and women who don’t realize the educational and fundamental values that these super heroes bring out in their readers.
My writing workshops, built my tone that has been referred to as Deadpool-like, which is in fact a compliment for someone like myself who wants to help improve Marvel and DC comics’ writing department. I’ll never forget the professors here who guided me to the top and hope to one-day impress them with my own comic book series. That’s what Coastal Carolina University has done with the English department, constantly sending out winners.  Finally, after reflecting on my past in Coastal, I see now how blind I was and how little I knew upon arriving. I know I still have much to learn, but now it’s time for me soar and fall without a net.