The Evergreen Experience When I first arrived at Evergreen in September 1979, 1 was a junior in college, eighteen years old and coming in from the other side of the mountains -- Eastern Washington. I remember my first thoughts, when viewing the campus, were "It's so beautiful, but how am I ever going to live with three other people in the same place?" (the Mods). Well, by the time I graduated in 1983, 1 had been through a lot of roommates, met a lot of wonderful people, and had some incredible experiences in the woods surrounding the campus. I think I learned more outside of my classes at TESC than I did in the programs, except for my last quarter. Most of the academics seemed a little lacking, however I finally managed to snag a program I'd been hoping to get into since I first arrived there. It was called Poets Write Poetry, and David Powell was the professor. He taught me how to dissect language and put it back together again-he taught me how to refuse to accept the mediocre, how to write on demand. I will never forget David and the PWP program -- I think every student in there broke down in tears at one time or another as we learned how to accept criticism of our work, and how to give accurate critiques. That one quarter prepared me for years of rejection as I sought to find my way in the world of publishing. The atmosphere at Evergreen taught me something far more valuable than any academic program could ever impart: a sense of tolerance. There was a lot of prejudice where I grew up, towards anyone who was gay or lived an alternative lifestyle. There was racism, both overt and hidden. Within three weeks of my arrival at TESC, I felt as if I'd journeyed forward into the present, instead of being locked within the attitudes of the past. The freedom I felt to develop my own spirituality, to begin facing the possibility that I was bisexual, to interact with men and women on the basis of who they were rather than what color or sexual preference they had, was heady. I felt freed from a cage and still value the sense of relief that I discovered when I found that there were others who saw racism and sexism as something to be frowned on rather than just accepting it without question. However, I began to notice a disturbing trend at TESC -- that of rigid, uncompromising PC'ism. I began to feel out of place, primarily because I questioned those who were complaining about "the Establishment" while living off their parents' money, and those who would sit and drink their Colombian coffee while complaining about the exploitation of the third world. Given time, any counterculture will develop its own establishment, and I found it disturbing that a few of the students I met were as uncompromising as the people I'd left behind me. My favorite activities while there were wandering through the woods -- I'm so glad to see that they've kept a large share of the campus forest intact-and hanging out at the library. Evergreen's library is one of the nicer ones I've ever been in. While I always wanted to see a bigger selection of books, the atmosphere was so comfortable that I would spend day after day there, writing, working. Long after I graduated I continued to use the library as a source of information and respite. All in all, my life while at TESC was pretty good. There were some hard times, but it was an experience of awakening into the me that would evolve from the roots I put down there.