Journey to Yale: Part 1-Dream by Day

My Journey to the Yale Publishing Course 2015

Part 1:

Dream by Day

I needed to make the most of an eleven hour road trip for a week-long magazine publishing course at Yale University. Indeed I am living out a fantasy and can not be convinced that I deserve to be amidst this group of professionals. 
Somewhere between receiving a tuition scholarship and a sweet send off from family and friends, I gathered enough encouragement, motivation and snacks to make this once in a lifetime trek. I keep reminding myself that I can't shrink back after-all I founded a magazine called "Empowerment."

My first challenge started before I hit the road. I was solely responsible for selecting a mid-way point for my drive from Lexington, North Carolina to New Haven, Connecticut.
After looking for a place that would be deserving 
of the nature of my journey to visit a land filled with brilliant writers and journalists... 
I remembered that my beloved Edgar Allan Poe

had a love affair with a city called Baltimore. 
 Perhaps I could glean some wisdom & courage
by visiting his city. 

The city of Baltimore is beautiful and filled with Poe related history. He was from a Baltimore family and lived there during much of his literary career. Both Poe's parents were actors and died tragically before he was three years old. Poe was adopted by a wealthy Virginian. He attended the best schools and briefly served in the military before being honorably discharged. 
He spent his final years in Baltimore writing poetry and living in the home of his auntie Mrs. Maria Clemm.  
During the week of Poe's mysterious death, the writer was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore. He died at age 40 in a hospital near the place where his body lies at rest. 

Before hitting the road for the second leg of my trip to New Haven, I slipped out of my hotel room in the wee hours of Sunday morning to watch the sun rise over the harbor. I was exhausted from the drive but longed to spend a few moments 
at the memorial of my idol. 

Poe was fascinated with dreaming and 
much of his poetry focused on the topic. 

A Dream Within a Dream Edgar Allan Poe, 1809 - 1849










Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow:
You are not wrong who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand--
How few! yet how they creep 
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

There aren't enough writerly words to express the moment of sheer appreciation that I had for the opportunity to sit in the shadow of Edgar Allan Poe.  I looked up at the sky and thought of what they call "Poe's Baltimore" and wondered what advice he would give to an aspiring writer. 
That is when I found his quote

Day 1 of my journey to Yale began with 
Day dreaming courtesy of 
~POE~