IMR: Introduction
by Caneel Cheskin
Greetings, and welcome to a new school year!
One thing you should know about me even before I start explaining what my blog will be about is that I dislike beginnings. I like the in medias res approach. (I know this introduction is contradictory; bear with me.) I do like satisfying endings, so I’ll definitely tie them up at the end.
This semester, I want to hone my creative nonfiction. Unless it becomes my job post-graduation, I probably won’t write outside of personal projects for a while, which is a shame. My focus in my weekly articles will be ESCAPISM. This is a sweeping category, and that’s how I like it. Whether we’ll talk about the psychology behind it, methods of escaping from reality, or something else related in the slightest way, everything will tie back to escapism.
I believe in a healthy amount of escapism. And then I see my generation relying more than ever on hobbies and pastimes (and our phones) to distract ourselves from what’s going on in the world. Still, who could blame us? I’m sure I don’t need to rattle off the List of Catastrophes That Occur Every Day—we all see enough of that on the news. The state of the world feels both inescapable and unreal; we can see it in photos and the strange haze that’s been hanging around since August, but the actual explosive evidence of violence and skyrocketing COVID numbers seems to skirt our little Maine town.
I digress. I did say I was here to talk about escapism, but what’s escapism without something to escape from? It’s in the word.
Next week (or sooner, who knows?) I’ll be talking about one of my personal favorite methods of escapism, and a common one in my demographic: Video games. I can hear everyone about my parents’ age and judginess level letting out a really big sigh at that one. I say, give me a chance. I’ll show you some of the games I like, explain them, and explain why they work. It’ll be fun! See you then.
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