Inside A.C.T.

posted by Josh Roberts, A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program Class of 2011 I have always seen a lot of myself in the title characters of comic strip classic Calvin & Hobbes , but I admit it’s been a long time since I had Calvin’s allergy to school. Trapped by cartoon magic perpetually in first grade, Calvin would agonize over every last second before the bell’s ring released him from his Sisyphean misery. Not me. I am much more Susie Derkins, Calvin’s nerdy nemesis: always cut short mid-thought by the same bell, reading during recess, arriving early, and staying late. It’s an illness. It is because I am sick that I find myself, as I write this from Morning Due Café on Church Street, a little shell-shocked to be at the end of my first semester as an M.F.A. student at A.C.T. What am I supposed to do for three weeks? I am having separation anxiety. I am sure this would not have happened if our immersion in this training were not so complete. If the atmosphere in the building we...