It’s that time of year again. The time when I pick a new scone recipe, read a book on the Inklings and write a little rant of a blog post about how we need community. Today is the day that spurred countless books to be written, turned unknown professors into world renown authors, and created an entirely new genre of literature that had never seen before. Today is the Friendiversary of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

 

 

These two men, at first greatly opposed to one another, became friends after discovering a mutual love for Nordic Myths. They began to meet on a weekly basis, reading and translating together, until one day Tolkien arrived with a myth of his own to share, the Lay of Leithian. Lewis not only returned the poem with margins covered in notes and changes that should be made, he also brought one of his owns poem to read. And so the Inklings began.

Over the next twenty years, others, such Owen Barfield and Charles Williams,   would come to join their meetings and share their literary works with the group. Every week, would begin the same way, with Lewis lighting his pipe and asking accusingly, “Well then, has no one got anything to read us?”

We will never fully be able to weigh the effects that question made. Out of this group, literary giants emerged and countless books were written. Before the Inklings, Lewis was a mostly unknown poet who had never tried his hand at fiction. We have Perelandra because Tolkien dared Lewis to write a story about space travel. Tolkien was a philologist who was more interested in creating languages than chiseling away at a plot. We have Lord of the Rings because Lewis encouraged Tolkien to spend less time creating languages and elvish anthologies and more time writing plots. In order for these two men to be who they were created to be, they needed each other. Their success hinged on their friendship.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again now: The secret to creativity is to surround ourselves with a community. We were not made to work in solitude, but to share, to borrow, and to build upon each other. My community is what kept me up to midnight last night typing at this computer because I promised them that I would send them a new chapter of my novel by the end of the night. My community is what spurred me to even consider writing a novel, when a friend looked me in the eyes, and said, “Maybe Aeda isn’t a short story, maybe she’s a novel.” My Community gave me the courage to pick up a pen. And when I thought I was too exhausted to write another word, my community dipped my pen in ink and whispered encouragingly, “just one more line.” You can always write one more line.

 

As I’ve read through Glyer’s Bandersnatch: The Creative Collaboration of the Inklings,  I began to see my own accomplishments in a different light. Saturday I will graduate with a Masters Degree that’s been four years in the making. I joked with a friend that when I receive my diploma, I want to place an asterisk beside my name, flip over the piece of paper and write out the names of all the people who labored alongside me. Since I won’t be able to walk across a stage (flight tickets from Berlin to Dallas are extraordinarily expensive) today is a chance to for me to celebrate all that my community and I have accomplished together.

*Nancy Postler, my mother, who never let money stop me from following my dream. She never once hesitated when her adult (and self-proclaimed independent) daughter called her freaking out that textbooks cost $700 for one semester. She watched me make mistakes and still helped me pick up the pieces when I realized that she was right all along. Sometimes I forget how great she really is, and then she’ll say, “Don’t worry. We’ll figure all this out.”  So thanks, Mom, for always helping me figure out a way to follow my dreams.

*Stephanie & Christopher Elmerick, my parents across the pond. I was 18 and stupid, proven by the fact that I said in an interview with you, “If you hire me as your intern, am I going to have to babysit your kids? Because I don’t like kids, and I’d rather not do that.” You told me no, that I wouldn’t. But then life changed, and I found myself spending the summer falling in love with three kids. I flew home in August and changed my major to Early Childhood Education. I found my greatest passion because you both welcomed into your family. There is so much more I could say to you two. I could talk about how Stephanie has mentored me in grace and humility and wisdom. I could talk about how Christopher has pushed me to be kinder and more servant-hearted. But I’ll stop there, and simply say that I look more like Jesus because y’all are in my life.

*Nicole, who at one point shared my apartment, my major, and my last name. Thank you for forcing me to volunteer with you in that 2nd grade class on Wednesday Nights. It was my first real experience teaching and I haven’t stopped since.

*John & Ismael, two of my first bosses who both gave me jobs I was unqualified for. They told me that I was good at something and that maybe I should pursue it further. Every job I have since applied to comments on how much experience I have for a person my age. The irony is not lost on me. I am now considered qualified, because of the grace you both showed me.

*Katrina, who let me follow her around as she visited grad schools. I didn’t end up at any of those schools, but it was on the 12 hour road trip back from Chicago when she looked at me in the car and said, “Hey, what about DTS? I’ve heard they have a good program.” We googled it on our smartphones, and I started an application the next day. She has shown me the beauty of being a nerd, and have given me a safe place to be strange. This blog is the product of one of our four hour long conversations of following rabbit trails and youtube videos when she encouraged me to be less of a consumer and more of a creator. I am a better artist because of her.

*Jenna, the first person I met on campus at DTS, and my first friend. She picked me up from the airport at least fifteen times, and let me sleep on her couch when I needed to. She let me ugly cry on her bed. She let me angry rant when a classmate did something that upset me. She is my kindred spirit on a campus where it was hard to sometimes fit in, and I would not have stayed at DTS had I not met her. (Also, she graduated on Saturday too! If I would have made it, we would have stood next to each other in line. So, Congratulations Friend! We made it! I’m so proud of you!)

*Corielle and Beth, the two women who provided me a house and a job when I hit rock bottom my second semester in grad school, moved home, and tried dropping out altogether. They made the rest of my life as easy as possible, so that when I recovered, the damage wouldn’t be as bad. They cried with me, watched HGTV with me, and gave me hard advice that I didn’t want to hear. You both were there for me in one of the darkest seasons I’ve encountered. Thank you.

*To my professors at DTS who let me be who I am. I am proud to have attended a school that encouraged my creativity. In Spring of 2015, I took a class in which we were required to write two poems. Those poems led to a song, which led to me remembering how much I loved writing as a child. Three months later, I started this blog, which led to a short story about a little orphan girl named Aeda. I am a writer because I went to a school that encouraged me to use my creative talents in an intellectual setting. I realize now how rare this truly is.Thank you.

*Lauren, my best friend. When she came home to me crying over a paper that I couldn’t finish, she sat down beside me and talked me through concepts I didn’t understand. She was my sounding board, my “hey, what do you think about this? Am I crazy? Could this be right?” person. And besides being the brilliant woman she is, she proofread all my papers, catching every grammatical error time and again. (Though she didn’t proofread this, so I’m sure she’s wincing a little as she catches all of my mistakes.) Furthermore, in addition to my schoolwork, my novel wouldn’t exist without her. I’ll never forget the moment she looked at me and said, “It’s not a stupid idea. It’s really beautiful actually.” Those simple words spurred me to start telling a story that I’d been too scared to even attempt for four years. A year later, she looked at my little short story and encouraged me to consider turning it into a novel. She always knows how to say the right thing, the true thing, and the scary thing all at once.

I am graduating on Saturday because of these people. It may be my name on the Diploma, just as it may be Tolkien’s name on The Lord of the Rings. But we all know that I would not be at this point without these people. They are my community. My family. My Inklings. They have pushed me to start things I thought were beyond my reach, and have held me up when I thought about quitting. Thank you for your struggles, your sacrifice, and your work on my behalf. If I have accomplished anything, it is because of you all.

So, today, let’s celebrate friendship. Let’s celebrate what a community is capable of.