I'm spending a nice quiet day grading papers. This end-of-semester task always feels so daunting to me before I start, but once I get going I get into a groove and actually enjoy it. My students at The City College of New York this fall have been amazing. In my expository writing class, I have many students who are English language learners, some of whom have only been in the U.S. for a few years. The progress they have made in the last few months in learning how to organize their thoughts and put them on paper in English is mind-blowing. They inspire me to keep working on projects and tasks that I find overwhelming. My Creative Writing students, likewise, have thrived this semester. We began the term learning the "nuts and bolts" of Creative Writing craft because many students had not written fiction before. Observing the learning curve of these students between the end of August and now has been incredible, and the stories they have drafted are complex and compelling. I can't wait to read their final drafts, which will be coming my way soon.