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My name is Kirby Boes and I am just finishing my junior year at Columbus School for Girls. I have attended CSG since 1st grade, so it is still unreal to me that next year will be my last. Throughout my almost 12 years at CSG, writing and literature classes have always been my favorite; so, when I had the opportunity to intern at Thurber House for my Junior May Experience, I was immediately interested.

Junior May Experience is part of our high school’s “May Program”, which is a yearly program that takes place the last two weeks of May, after we finish our final exams. May Program for the underclassmen consists of a variety of opportunities including cultural cooking classes, drivers ed., historical film classes, service trips, and even ultimate frisbee! Senior May Program, for the seniors, is a month long internship organized individually and can be anywhere in the city, state, country, or world! Junior May Experience (JME) is the happy medium, as well as the transition, from the underclassmen’s May Program to Senior May Program.

So, how did I end up at Thurber House this week? During the school year, we turned in a list of our likes and interests, and later received a list of possible places to intern for one or two weeks – all organized by one of our teachers. We labeled our top three choices for our JME and soon received where we would be interning. Last week, my first week of JME, I interned at Flying Horse Farms, an amazing camp for children with severe illnesses, and now, the second week of JME, I am here interning at the one and only Thurber House!

Today is my first day here at Thurber House, and to be completely honest, I was a little creeped out, but also intrigued, after recently discovering that this place is haunted. When I arrived this morning, I went on a self-guided tour of Thurber House and read two of James Thurber’s short stories, The Dog that Bit People and University Days, both of which were comical and enjoyable easy-reads. The next few days I will be assisting in preparations for the Thurber House summer writing camp, which I actually attended when I was in elementary school! I am also very excited to help Katie and Meg teach a super heroes and villains writing activity at Horizon Middle School later this week. I am not entirely sure what to expect, but it sounds super exciting! (See what I did there? Super heroes, super exciting…)

I am very happy to be here at Thurber House. I really hope I don’t run into any ghosts, but most of all I cannot wait to see what the next four days have in store!

by Victoria, Thurber House Intern

Hello and goodbye blog readers! It’s Victoria the Intern (at least for another eight hours) giving you the final update as to what I’ve been up to at Thurber House.

Since my last update, I’ve embraced my very limited artistic ability by creating some fun, inspirational, and only slightly lame posters for Thurber’s summer camp. I got to release my inner murderer/grand thief/CSI detective as I helped brainstorm ideas for various summer camp mysteries. And, I also connected with my inner mailman too, as I spent some time delivering and mailing out Flip the Page books.

Since this is my last day, I always try to walk away from an experience with a new quote due to my slightly unhealthy obsession with them. It’s only fitting that the one I’ve collected from Thurber House be from Mr. James Thurber himself: “Don’t get it right, get it written”.

If I’ve learned anything this week, it’s that being a writer is hard; despite whatever romantic notions people have about words effortlessly flowing onto pages (I can personally attest that that is not the case). More often than not, I try so hard to write right that I forget about what’s really important – writing. Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you write something, it’s that you did. And so, I’m going to try to apply Thurber’s words of wisdom to my future as a writer and spend less time focusing on how I’m going to phrase something and instead just write it.

All in all, I’ve had so much fun spending the week here! I was a little worried at first because I didn’t know how the other workers would react to having some awkward, lingering high school student take up space for the week, but they have all been amazing. Everyone here has been so incredibly nice, helpful, and supportive as they showered me with Snack Packs, answers, and encouragement.

And that was my final update! Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my silly, little posts. I’m so happy that I got an opportunity to intern here at Thurber House, which I now know for sure is, as my friend’s little sister said, “the best place on Earth”.

Staff Note: All of us at Thurber House loved having Victoria here! She was incredibly helpful, didn’t complain about the boring tasks and had great input in some of our camp activities (we’re a little scared at how readily she helped create our camp mysteries!). We wish we could have her for longer but we know she will do amazing things! 

by Victoria, Thurber House Intern

Hello again blog readers! This is a midweek update as to what I – Victoria the Intern – have been up to here at Thurber House.

Three days into my internship and I have learned a lot of things – the life and writings of James Thurber, the importance of organization, and the superiority of Nickles Donut Fair (absolutely true). I’ve also managed to start up my own collection of pens, become an Excel spreadsheet master (which is harder than it looks, let me tell you), test out every single marker/pen/glue stick within a five-mile radius, and do a lot of inventory.

But, mostly I’ve just been helping Thurber prepare for their Summer Camp, which looks like so much fun that I’m contemplating building a time machine and going back in time to when I was a 2nd - 8th grader just to join! Seriously – awesome games, interesting writing prompts, and stories galore – what better way to spend your summer?

For my summer, I plan on reading all the books I’ve been assigned to read for school next year. This should take about the entire summer since I decided to take four different English classes (I know, I’m crazy). Here are a few books not for school that I plan on reading:

On my Want to Read List: In Search of Lost Time (Marcel Proust), Nine Stories (J.D. Salinger), and The Fault in Our Stars (John Green).

On my Currently Reading List (AKA the books that are collecting dust in my room): Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut) and a truck full of my guilty pleasure – Sarah Dessen novels.

And that was your midweek update! Check in on Friday for the final entry! 

Hi there, my name is Bo Fisher and believe it or not, I’m 18-years old, a writer and am growing up in what I’ve been told is a 21st century skilled generation, yet this is my first ever blog. I’m a senior at the Upper Arlington High School and have been interning at Thurber House now for a little over a month. Aside from helping out Meg and Pat once a week here, I also attend Young Writers’ Studio every other Wednesday.

As a matter of fact, what lured me to James Thurber’s historic house wasn’t the curious ghost hunt that was reportedly held last October or the readings and events centered around vastly acclaimed authors. Rather it was the Young Writers’ Studio. As a writer of both prose and poetry as well as a journalist, I’m disappointed to say the least, that my high school doesn’t offer one course on creative writing. I realize though that this will not only affect me, but every other aspiring writer to come through Upper Arlington. And we will never know how many we lose if we don’t fix it now.

For the past three years, I have been left to take classes and workshops outside of my high school, during the summer and at Columbus State. All along though, I have been planning to change that for future students at UA. For my senior capstone project, I plan to propose and hopefully introduce at least one creative writing class to the Upper Arlington High School. First though, I must prove to my principal and school board why a creative writing course is beneficial.

Thurber House and Young Writers’ Studio is a perfect place to help me get that across. This is a place where students can come if they don’t have an adequate creative writing program at their high school, or like me, don’t have one at all. In my first session at the studio, most of the writers discussed the creative writing courses at their schools and shared my frustration over Upper Arlington’s negligence. Through attending more sessions, I not only look to observe how a workshop is formed, structured and run (as it may be different for other instructors and professors) but learn from the writers just how important their creative writing courses are to them. What are the lasting impressions that these courses leave on students?

Thanks for reading my first ever blog. I hope you continue to read about my experiences here at Thurber House and my search for a reason why we should all write!