Graduation at the Old Swiss Inn

Not too many people know that the Old Swiss Inn at The Olympia has a function room at the back. It’s spacious, not very fancy, a good staging venue for my Joy of Writing public classes and the graduation of those classes. Since you first read about my writing classes in this column, the course has progressed. Initially I offered a 10-session class and a six-session class, the latter in response to the suggestion of a cousin, an investment banker, who said 10 sessions were too long. "Why not cut down to six," he suggested at the Sunday lunch table, picking a number out of thin air. I, being more docile than my bad reputation, took his suggestion but the six-session results didn’t please me. People did write better but not as well as the 10-session graduates and they didn’t seem to have enough time over six sessions to become friends. Those who took the 10 sessions, believe me, are bonded. Some of them seem joined at the hip even if they met only in my class.

The Joy of Writing is almost a course of my own making. While based on a book, the original course is held on one intensive day, believing that students will learn the innovative technique and use it just like that. Learning doesn’t happen just like that. People must feel comfortable, have fun, have a venue and reason for practice. They must feel connected and supervised. They need encouragement and affirmation. It’s amazing how many students of whatever age still meekly say, "I don’t know if this is the right thing. . ." when, within very broad limits, they can do no wrong in class.

Because this is a course I’ve been evolving, our sessions and activities have been evolving as well. My students are wonderfully forgiving. I didn’t do graduation right for the first six-session class, my apologies to Muriel, Cathy, Carlo, Johnny, Rose, Karen, Ivy, Ner, Yoly and Marissa. They wrote their graduation pieces. We edited them in class. It was a downer and I swore I owed them a better event.

We had too good a time at the graduation of the first 10-session class, who have formed themselves into an e-group called firstclasswriters. It was held at my home in Laguna in the aftermath of a typhoon. The weather gave us major anxiety. We didn’t know if we would or we wouldn’t push through, if they could cross over or not. In the end we just forced it, thanks to Parker’s big crystal that he brought for mega-luck so things would go right. We had such tension then such fun we forgot to read our poems.

Of course, I never got the certificates right either because my printer bogged down long before the computer did and to this day I haven’t gotten it to generate decent certificates. In the meantime work piles up because my computer breakdown has delayed my schedules so that I can hardly breathe just catching up with myself. So by now I have graduated four public classes but no one has a certificate. Such is my students’ trust that I will not disappoint, that eventually I will get around to delivering everything. Didn’t the writing class exceed their expectations?

Finally, I think, I may have gotten graduation right for the third and fourth public classes. For one thing, I had to postpone many times because things kept going wrong. These postponements gave everyone a lot of time to write and revise their graduation pieces, get over their blocks, silence their left brains and find that beautiful melodic voice of the right brain. Thanks to the delays I could edit most of the work that would be read. Also, two classes graduated together, so one served as audience for the other. It is important to have an audience when we read our work.

The graduation of the third and fourth Joy of writing series (Tuesday and Saturday classes respectively) was held at the function room of The Old Swiss Inn. It followed on the heels of the ongoing public class so new students could stay for the event. The first and second batch graduates were invited but only a few from the first class writers came. Ron, representing the first public class graduates, read his graduation piece Episodes. Others from the First Batch who were there were Ias, Yayo, Parker, Maricar.

From the Tuesday class Ampy, Liz, Jojo, Eliz, Candy and David read their graduation pieces. From the Saturday class Mariel, Lynette, and Boboy read their pieces. I must make special mention of Baboo Mondonedo, who read her graduation piece also. Baboo will go down in my memory as the student who joined two different Saturday classes plus Tuesday classes crafting her own course and her own enjoyment, an amazing thing to me because Baboo, apart from being a childhood friend, is a writer by profession.

Just for graduation evening we divided the Old Swiss Inn’s function room in two. While we were having classes inside, a small area for a poetry reading was set up closer to the door. Gigi, from the present class, thought the set a bit bare so she enhanced it with her handmade paper products. We had a backdrop! I borrowed an antique revolving piano stool from Faye’s husband for people to sit on while reading their graduation pieces. We had a charming enough set. After the short poetry reading we had refreshments, including wine, and chocolate and cheese fondue to slide us over into Saturday night. The poetry reading cum graduation was held at an awkward time, 4:30 - 7:00 pm, to not interfere with family plans for Saturday evening. My students say it was a charming affair and I think, finally, I am getting graduation right.

The next public class will have a similar graduation and I will once again try to get graduates of the other batches to join and read the graduation pieces they haven’t read yet so we have an excuse to get together again and enjoy each other’s company. In the meantime, we are trying to get a web page up. So things are indeed moving.

Not too many people know that the Old Swiss Inn at The Olympia has a function room at the back. On Saturday afternoons it is host to the Joy of Writing classes and every once in a while poetry readings are held there.

Please send your comments to lilypad@skyinet.net or visit www.lilypad lectures.com to check up on a work in progress.