I arrived in Scotland one year ago yesterday—exhausted, excited, and emotionally drained after leaving my entire life behind me. I’d left behind the organization I co-founded with a friend. I’d left behind a relationship of over a decade. I’d left my parents behind at the airport. I’d left behind my family, my country, and everything that felt safe, for a complete unknown. A family friend picked me up at the airport (a beacon of security in an extremely unsure world) and dropped me off in my room, and I was immediately adrift.

In the year to come, of course, my home country would rapidly destabilize, my new country would do its best to follow suit, and a global pandemic would shake the human population as a whole to its core. Somehow, impossibly, this has still been one of the best years of my life.

The JournalAlex PenlandSeptember 8, 2020MSc Creative Writing, University of Edinburgh, Grad School Adventures, education, slice of life, accomplishments

3, 2, 1...

This has been a week for launches.

I’m re-launching the website, of course. Minor redesign, a little streamlining, and the new blog. (Don’t be too worried that The Letter Mage seems to have vanished—there are long-term re-launching plans there too!) But the big, exciting launch was the launch of From Arthur’s Seat: Volume V, the anthology put out by my cohort at the University of Edinburgh.

Streaming and purchase links are available in the full entry.

The JournalAlex PenlandMay 18, 2020From Arthur's Seat, FAS5, University of Edinburgh, Grad School Adventures Comment