Mitch
Hey, my name is Mitch Roshannon. I consider myself a writer by trade, though I’ve done and still do a lot of different jobs to make ends meet. I’m the kind of guy that defines himself through his work, and considers work an important part of my identity. I think what we do matters, and how we feel about it matters even more. I’ve worked as a stock guy in big retail stores for one. This still stands out to me specifically because I helped to close that store, tearing down shelves and discounting goods alongside a man named Chuck, a liquidator who ruined that name for me forever. I worked in an ice cream factory for a while as well. Turns out the creating part of ice cream isn’t quite as blissful as the final product. I’ve worked in offices, mostly here on campus, where each day a new and difficult mission presents itself, such as clearly the jam in the shredder or emptying the pencil shavings without getting graphite everywhere. I’ve worked the longest at an amusement park, a job I’ve loved like no other, but it’ll give you nightmares. I once woke up after a nightmare where carousel music played as the horses came to life and ate me alive. I had an internship at a non-profit, not much to say about that one; and behind a screen I’ve been doing freelance work spending some late nights with a keyboard and a dream, looking to get that next publishable piece finished. Like I said, a lot of different jobs, but it’s not the job, it’s the passion that counts, and my passion has always been caught up in the word; written or spoken aloud in every accent and dialect imaginable and I’ve been able to find words everywhere. My favorite word so far is platypus.
I’m currently a senior at Susquehanna University studying Creative Writing and English Lit. I briefly had a history minor, but life is super unpredictable and that was quickly thrown out the window. I work on getting published whenever I can, though I frequently get distracted. I’ll sit down planning to write but then Oh my those windows are dirty I better go clean those, well those windows sure are clean. Job well done, I better go take a rest, it’s about time for lunch actually, and in the end no writing ever happens. Currently I’ve been published in Essay Magazine and Sanctuary, both on campus magazines, and Inter Magazine which has published two of my essays on interfaith encounters. Last Semester I had a teaching assistant position, and ever since have been stuck on the idea of becoming a professor of writing myself. There was a sense of accomplishment that I’ve been chasing ever since that class, the kind that comes with a good hard day’s work. But it wasn’t work, it was enjoyable, reading the work of incoming freshman, it was invigorating, it made writing feel new again. So that’s the end goal, the final checkmark on a ten-year long plan for the rest of my life that changes over and over again, almost daily. Frequently I don’t know what I’m doing, hence all the changes, but I’m doing my best to figure it out and I’ll get there. Someday.