{"id":112,"date":"2025-02-11T10:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T18:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/?page_id=112"},"modified":"2026-02-17T17:06:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T01:06:31","slug":"embracing-discomfort","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/past-issues\/embracing-discomfort\/","title":{"rendered":"Embracing Discomfort"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 2025<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\" \"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Download the issue of Embracing Discomfort<\/a> PDF.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

CFP<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t read 2Pac\u2019s poem A Rose That Grew From the Concrete<\/em>, go read that real quick, and if you\u2019ve read it before, go read it again.<\/p>\n

Long live the roses that grew from concrete. Our names are Mia Fischer and Taj Regans, and we are senior English majors at Cal Lutheran University here to tell you that we care. We care about your pain, and we care about the adversity you had to overcome and are still overcoming, because challenges are something we all share. In the Gumby Writing Project\u2019s 2025 theme \u201cEmbracing Discomfort\u201d we urge you to dig deeper into what has helped you grow and the canon moments that have shaped who you are today. Specifically, we invite you to reflect on your most vulnerable experiences and share any perspective you\u2019ve gained, experiences that you think were the concrete to your rose.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fear, rejection, and hardships are things we all have faced at one time or another. Whether it is taking a challenging class, trying out for a sports team, or making your form of art public, it all stems from getting out of your comfort zone. Through matters out of our control, some of us may have been born into uncomfortable situations and these situations can come from family, distinctive physical characteristics, or the environment one is raised in. I think all of us can relate to staying in our comfort zones as a defense mechanism, doing everything we can to not to feel the potential pain of failure or rejection. However, when we fight new experiences, or try to uphold an image of perfection, we sometimes lose the opportunity to grow in new ways we had not been able to imagine. Sharing these aspects of your story might not come naturally, as we are usually taught to mask our weaknesses, but this year’s theme is all about embracing the messiness and the discomfort that comes with learning, growing, and living. When we choose to embrace and share our trials and tribulations, it not only strengthens oneself but the community around us.<\/p>\n

Therefore, we ask that whoever this calling speaks to, please submit any piece of work that you have expressing your experience(s) of \u201cEmbracing Discomfort.\u201d Tell us a story of how you made a weakness a strength, or how a situation that looked negative taught you something valuable. There is never a time where inspiration isn\u2019t welcomed, so we invite all other interpretations of this theme which embrace discomfort in some way and show how roses can grow from the concrete.<\/p>\n

We will be accepting all creative mediums of submission including digital art, poems, and prose.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Guest Editors: Mia & Taj<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 2025 Download the issue of Embracing Discomfort PDF.   CFP If you haven\u2019t read…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":164,"parent":124,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-112","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207,"href":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/112\/revisions\/207"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.callutheran.edu\/gumbywriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}