by Chamberlain Zulauf<\/p>\n
A congenial presence across campus, Jasey Roberts (\u201822) is a Literature and Creative Writing double major from Christiansburg, VA, \u201cjust 30 minuets down the road\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n In past years Jasey might have helped you with an essay for class in the writing center or you may have read his Opinion and Lifestyle articles in the BA. Currently though, Jasey pursues new things like working on \u2018Noke\u2019s literary magazine the Roanoke Review as the social media coordinator and has become heavily involved with the drama department.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This season\u2019s production is <\/span>The Thanksgiving Play<\/span><\/i>, \u201cIt\u2019s a four-person comedy and it\u2019s actually really funny. We\u2019re all elementary school teachers trying to put on a play about Thanksgiving, but we\u2019re all white. <\/span>The characters really try to depict the Native Americans in a politically correct way, and continue to fail at that.<\/span>\u201c, said Jasey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of new things Jasey has started pursuing in his upperclassmen years. Substitute teaching for example. He\u2019s picked up running, even completing a half marathon last year, \u201cYou know, recently I\u2019ve been trying to play basketball too. I\u2019m in a yoga class this semester. Staying active is good for me, especially through COVID\u201d, said Jasey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Funny enough, Jasey is also in a secret Jump Roping club including select faculty and students. There\u2019s little Jasey wanted disclose in print, \u201c\u2026 and a couple other students\u2019 kind of meet a [a few times a week] together. And we\u2019ll jump rope. I\u2019ve been doing it since last semester, and I\u2019ve gotten good\u201d, said Jasey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There aren\u2019t many things Jasey isn\u2019t talented at; he\u2019s also a published writer and extremely active member in the English department.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy love for both reading and writing started in elementary school as an almost rebellious activity. I don\u2019t think a lot of people think of it as that, but I was the kid who got busted for reading in class\u2026 like all the time. Writing is the one interest of mine that remained consistent, like I used to draw in class too but eventually I was just writing stories in class. My classes are about reading and writing now but I still feel that rebellious quality with reading and writing today\u201d, said Jasey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since then, he\u2019s had a short story titled \u201cCharlie\u201d published in the Susquehanna Apprentice Writers Magazine, a Poem titled \u201cFor a Guy from Work\u201d published in <\/span>Bourgeon Online<\/span>, and a short story titled \u201cThe Moth\u201d will be published in On Concepts Edge through the Andrew Murphy Fiction Contest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRight now, I\u2019m working on sending out more stories to places based outside the Virginia area\u201d, said Jasey. \u201c\u2026and applying to grad school\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI applied to nine different programs. My top schools are Syracuse, Iowa, UVA, kind of the usual suspects for Creative Writing MFA programs. [Creative Writing MFA\u2019s] are hard to get into, like six slots out of hundreds of applicants hard. So, I\u2019m also applying for jobs too. I think also I want to relocate to an urban environment, because I\u2019ve lived in this area my whole life. My dream job would be me producing writing and supporting myself with that. That\u2019s the dream\u201d, said Jasey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A long-term goal of Jasey\u2019s is to teach at the college level, which is a creative environment he will miss greatly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRoanoke has definitely been a positive thing in my life. I\u2019ve obviously changed a lot, especially in the past year or so because of COVID. I started a lot of self-sufficient habits and ways to grow into an adult. I feel like I was much more of a kid when I was a freshman. Now I\u2019m like, making my bed every morning, I exercise and care about my sleep schedule\u201d, said Jasey, \u201cmy advice to incoming maroons would be to do your laundry in the middle of the week. Pick a day and make it laundry day. I lived in sections back then and the laundry situation was a battle of strategy. Wednesdays were my laundry days\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 The biggest thing for me though, is just being social. I found that I really love people and talking to people, random people. I feel like weirdly, it was being able to spend time at Roanoke, then being taken away from it because of COVID. I realized what I was missing out on, so I wanted to come back and make my time count. My real advice is to stay open to new possibilities and opportunities and meet new people, even when you think you\u2019ve done everything\u201d, Said Jasey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jasey\u2019s favorite memory of Roanoke is attributed to a particular teacher which made a lasting impact on him in his time at Roanoke, \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a sad one, but last year my former boss and mentor Dr. McGlaun passed away. I remember a time at Prez. Ball when she was dancing with her husband, and she was really cutting loose. Everyone was noticing them and later she came over and started talking to me. I asked her how she can dance like that, and she said, \u2018I just don\u2019t care\u2019. I think about that all the time. To me it was a freeing moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Midterms are the following week of this issue\u2019s publication; Jasey wants to take one last nap on the third-floor couches of Fintel, remembering a time when it would be open all night and he\u2019d wake up in the morning for a Red Bull downstairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Chamberlain Zulauf A congenial presence across campus, Jasey Roberts (\u201822) is a Literature and Creative Writing double major from Christiansburg, VA, \u201cjust 30 minuets down the road\u201d. In past years Jasey might have helped you with an essay for class in the writing center or you may have read his Opinion and Lifestyle articles…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-6605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folks-at-noke","tag-summer2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}