{"id":6430,"date":"2021-08-16T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T09:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=6430"},"modified":"2021-08-16T09:00:58","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T09:00:58","slug":"graduate-school","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/graduate-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate School"},"content":{"rendered":"

My mother was mortified when she heard:<\/p>\n

No curtains? How do you live without curtains?<\/em><\/p>\n

All thanks to my sister who insisted on visiting:<\/p>\n

a plot to see what San Francisco had done to me<\/p>\n

after half a semester. Just how many rooms<\/em><\/p>\n

does this apartment have anyway?<\/em>\u00a0 \u201cFlat,\u201d<\/em> I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe say flat here. Like in Europe.\u201d LA DI DA,<\/em><\/p>\n

my mother sang. But no TV, Mister Fancypants? <\/em><\/p>\n

Five roommates and not one TV\u2014uchh. <\/em>Had I<\/p>\n

given up God, denounced the religion of things,<\/p>\n

uprooting myself from her sane Long Island?<\/p>\n

I just wanted to study poetry, in \u201ca room, with<\/p>\n

some lace and paper flowers.\u201d Like Stevie Nicks.<\/p>\n

I just wanted to be a Gypsy. Hadn\u2019t she began here?<\/p>\n

Opening for Janis? And Jimi? Writing her songs.<\/p>\n

If Stevie had curtains, she likely tore them down.<\/p>\n

To wear as a shawl. When my mother mailed some,<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cBut I\u2019d rather watch the city.\u201d To imagine<\/p>\n

the orange bridge stretching behind the rows<\/p>\n

of grubby Victorians, to listen to the pigeons<\/p>\n

on my roof cooing to orgasm each morning.<\/p>\n

I stopped there, sensing my mother\u2019s threshold.<\/p>\n

No TV\u2014did ya ever? <\/em>Likely addressing my sister,<\/p>\n

the rat. I assumed she hadn\u2019t mentioned my neighbor,<\/p>\n

his slow-mo strip tease in the frame of his window<\/p>\n

every dusk\u2014just for me. My sister blew him<\/p>\n

a kiss when I refused to let her snap a photo.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven this city has limits,\u201d I explained. My mother<\/p>\n

threatened a TV for my birthday. \u201cBut I need to read.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life without commercials, canned laughter. Besides,<\/p>\n

hadn\u2019t this been her plan? An educated son, a man<\/p>\n

of the world, her little boy in a room with a view?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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