School Anxiety Dreams...
and how to avoid them
I’ve found that the best way to avoid school anxiety dreams is to never return to your college after you graduate. If you must return, don’t stay in a dorm room that’s within spitting distance of the one where you slept on the top of a triple-bunked tower every night of your freshman year. Definitely avoid visiting your college radio station, because you’ll find that it smells the same, the CDs are still there, and every surface is still covered with stickers. And whatever you do, don’t eat the food in the student union building, which somehow tastes exactly the same.
I did all of these things when I recently returned to my alma mater, the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, and every moment of my trip was worth the several frighteningly realistic school anxiety dreams that now haunt my nights. This was my first “lecture,” which is in quotes because—like I stated in my opening monologue to a roomful of zoomers, faculty and alumni—I was a terrible student. But now, the student has become the teacher. Here’s a photograph of me explaining the most important lesson I learned in college:
Later that week I reunited with a bunch of college pals in Portland, OR at Powell’s Books, at the amazing record store Music Millennium, and at a taping of LiveWire radio, which was especially fun because I said some things that made the audience laugh—something I never take for granted in the heavy book conversation series that has been this year. The broadcast will be online soon. Here’s proof that it was a good time for everyone involved:
As the air gets crisp and the days grow shorter, it’s time to head south. I’ll be in Chapel Hill, NC this Tuesday Oct. 25 at Flyleaf Books in conversation with John Darnielle. I had the pleasure of working with John when his band the Mountain Goats released an album on 4AD soon after I started there in 2009. Surely I don’t need to tell you that John is also a best-selling author.
I’m in Brooklyn on Nov. 9 at the Center for Brooklyn History (fka the Brooklyn Historical Society) with Rebecca Carroll. I just finished Rebecca’s memoir Surviving the White Gaze, and we’ve been DMing about how much our books and our lives have in common. I’m excited for our talk, and as a bonus, it’s in the stunning Othmer Library where I wrote a lot of my book.
Last stop of 2022: Helsinki, Finland on Dec. 3 for the We Jazz Festival where my uncle Alan Braufman will perform alongside Patricia Brennan and Tomas Nordmark, all of whom have released music on my record label Valley of Search. It’s sure to be a cold, dark night.
2023 is shaping up nicely with events in Newport Beach, Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, Boise, Moscow (Idaho), and more in the works. Details and updates can always be found HERE.
My memoir My Life in the Sunshine is out now. I’d love it if you picked up a copy at your local independent bookstore. It’s also available at all the big places, and for your Kindle as well. There’s an audiobook that I spent 20 hours of my life reading (it’ll only take 7 hours to listen).
I hope to see you this fall.
Nabil Ayers / Brooklyn