My writing professor is celebrated in his department and he teaches a reflective writing course with a component that involves incarcerated students. I’m very passionate about prison education and the arts, and taking this class has been on my “must-do” list before I graduate.
Unfortunately, my freshman year, I was in a very unhealthy relationship with a much older man. Long story short, I introduced him to my school’s prison education program, we broke up, and he ends up being very close with the faculty who run the program.
I really want to take this course but I can’t imagine not writing about that relationship and addressing its impact on me and my college experience in that class. It’s obviously not anyone else’s problem but my own, and I’ve done the work to move on from the hurt the relationship caused, but I’m unsure if it would cause a conflict of interest for my professor to read essays about his friend?
This is a very tricky situation I never imagined being in.