When I catch myself rolling my eyes over late papers, I feel embarrassed for judging my students.

“If there are indeed only two types of people in the world—ones who entertain, and ones who observe (Britney deserves an honorary Doctorate in Philosophy for her mind)—then my pursuit of a writer’s life must be the manifestation of the audacity to want to be both.”

Maddy Smith is a poet and lyricist based in Nashville, Tennessee.

My least favorite question to answer is, “What do you do for a living?” The short answer (and the one that people seem to be most impressed with) is that I’m an English professor. This is the answer my parents give to their friends and the one my grandma tells to her cousins. It’s the answer that made my kindergarten teacher say “I told you so!” through a symphony of woohoos.