Kudzu Spring 2025

     Finally, another semester of my work at the Kudzu Review has come to a close. I've talked about my experience working during my first semester in another blog post, but this semester has felt like a completely different experience in all the right ways!

    On the work side of things, I feel like I've really found my voice as an editor for the fiction department in Kudzu. I think I've zeroed in on what makes a "good story" in my opinion, and I've gotten better at voicing exactly what I think a submission does well or does poorly, which has helped me become a more active voice during the meeting discussions. I've always had a harder time voicing my thoughts aloud as opposed to writing them out, since I've preferred writing out my thoughts with more precision and control over my wording instead of fumbling over words and feeling too shy to jump into the middle of a conversation. However, this has really changed this semester. At first most of my contribution to the meetings would be a witty remark or a stupid joke about the story we'd discuss, but over time I've started providing more feedback on how to help the author fix their submission, rather than just relentlessly critiquing it as others would. The bad jokes are still very much a part of my participation though, to the disappointment of my coworkers...

    That's the other thing that I feel changed this semester: my relationship with my coworkers. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but after the first meeting this semester the vibe had shifted somehow. Instead of everyone scattering and going their separate ways after the meeting had concluded, a few of us had stayed behind to have a little extra discussion about a particularly bad submission. This "little discussion" ended up keeping us at the library for almost an hour and a half after the meeting had officially ended, with our conversation bleeding into personal drama and joking around by the end of it. However, this wasn't a one off thing: after every meeting after that, the same small group would stick around for an extra half hour at least, just to talk and gossip and joke around.

    A running joke between the Fiction department had been the concept of a Kudzu bowling team bonding event, after I had once accidentally sent a text to the group chat that was meant for my other friends asking to "please bowl at the bowling center". However, after joking about it for so long, I eventually popped the question to the small post-meeting group, and to my surprise, everyone was down to bowl! Granted, most of them were terrible or didn't know how to bowl, but in an effect mirroring the team bonding exercise I wrote about a few months ago, we ended up growing closer together after I would help teach them how to bowl. Through bowling, we broke the barrier between "coworker" and "friend," to a point where we had our own separate group chat where we would organize bowling sessions every few weeks moving forward!

    Here is probably the point where this blog might shift focus from Kudzu to specifically this friend group, but I don't really care. I love my other friends, I really do, but the fact of the matter is that I've almost always been the odd man out when it comes to studies and academic interests. The majority of my friends from home are all programmers and computer science types, while the friends I hang out with in Tallahassee tend to be on the engineering side of things. The closest thing I have to a friend in the humanities is Wade, but there is such an emphasis placed on the technical side of film production in his studies that we have some trouble connecting to the specifics of each of our fields. So, when I started having this Kudzu friend group forming, I was really happy to have English major friends, with the same interests in reading and writing that I do. It sounds like a stupid realization to have, but I never really considered how much I was missing out on for not having more friends in the same academic major as me, and befriending these guys made me really happy! 

    Anyways, shifting quickly back to the Kudzu side of things, I really involved myself a lot more in the other Kudzu events outside of the section meetings this semester. Whether it was attending fundraisers, going to author interviews, and participating in networking events with other magazines, I made a point to show up to as many events as possible. This wasn't just because I had nothing better to do, either. After making proper friends in my Fiction department, I had a group to keep me company during all of these events, meaning even if the event itself was a little boring, I was never lonely or bored, since I was with my friends. Additionally, my constant attendance helped me connect a little better with my higher ups, like the Editor in Chief Michelle, who I ended up admiring a lot for all that she was able to accomplish as the head of the magazine this year.

    I don't know how things will change for the next semester of Kudzu. Maybe I'll be promoted to the head of the Fiction department. Maybe I'll start volunteering to run some events. Maybe I'll even submit to other departments. What I do know for certain, however, is that the changes I made this semester have made my experience so, so much better, and will continue to make my time at the Kudzu Review extremely memorable and endearing. It'll be a drag not having weekly meetings over the Summer semester, but at least I'll be able to see my friends outside of meetings now! Can't wait for Fall 2025!