Class Year
2014
Document Type
Creative Writing
Date of Creation
Spring 2014
Department 1
English
Abstract
This memoir investigates the roots of my core anxiety, the incessant but impossible ability to achieve perfection. It is framed by my experience getting a second tattoo, which is a line from T.S. Eliot's modernist poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," and ties together both my internal struggle and my affinity for physical pain. This memoir draws a line between the past and the present, seeking to find a connection between struggling with anxiety and engaging in self-mutilation as a source of relief.
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Bonner, Ryan A., "Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?" (2014). Student Publications. 195.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/195
Comments
Third place winner of the 2014 Virginia Woolf Essay Prize
This piece was written for Professor Kathryn Rhett's English 305 course: Writing the Memoir, Spring 2014.