"‘Well aren't you going to introduce me?' the guy asked. ‘This is Kelsey,' Alex said. ‘He edits my books. It's the least I can do for him, you know, so he can make a few bucks now and then.' He nudged Kelsey on the shoulder.
"'So how'd the two of you meet?' the guy asked. ‘Well we...' ‘I got this,' Alex jumped in. ‘I'm a little, he's a big.' I looked at him confused. ‘He's joking around,' Kelsey said. ‘You ever heard of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters? Well, don't sign up. They might stick you with someone like this.' He shed a smile toward Alex."
This is just a snippet of the story that Logan Moeller, senior English and telecommunications major, wrote for English 409 — Creative Writing in the Community.
Just this small portion represents the relationship Moeller witnessed this semester between "big brother" Kelsey Timmerman, a local author who wrote "Where Am I Wearing?" and his little brother in the program, Alex. The two make up a pair with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.
It all started at Greek's Pizzeria, the first place the trio met. Through e-mail, the meeting was arranged. Once they arrived, they looked for each other at the restaurant for a new, but familiar, face.
It didn't take long after their initial meeting for things to fall into place.
"We clicked right away," Moeller said. "We sat down and Alex kind of made fun of me."
Alex teased him about his hair and asked questions. Moeller said they hit it off right from the start.
"After the first visit, it felt like I knew them a lot longer than just one time, so it made it really comfortable," Moeller said.
Timmerman found the experience of having Moeller accompany the pair to be a good one. The experience was cool, he said, and he thought Moeller did a great job with the story.
"Just the few times he was with us, he was able to capture the relationship that Alex and I have," Timmerman said.
The class required students to meet with their person or pair five times for an hour each, but that was not enough for Moeller.
Each meeting ended up being around two hours either at restaurants or on campus. Because Alex had surgery during the process, Moeller met with Timmerman a few times at his house to get to know him as well. This led to Timmerman getting to know Moeller well.
Timmerman said after the times they met, he found Moeller to be a laid back person who can really write.
"He wove all this stuff together, complex things, into a pretty great story," Timmerman said.
For Moeller, the writing was not necessarily the most exciting part of the process, but meeting two new people and getting to spend time with them was.
"Just the opportunity to meet someone else was probably the most enjoyable part of it," Moeller said.
Not only has this experience had an effect on Moeller, but Alex has benefitted as well.
Alex is interested in writing, Timmerman said, so he took a story Alex wrote for school and incorporated it into his story.
"I think that was a really neat experience for Alex and hopefully encourages him to continue to write," Timmerman said.
The story Moeller developed is about Alex doing a reading of his most recent book. A lot of times, Alex accompanies Timmerman to readings in real life, so Moeller switched their roles for this story.
In real life, the two poke fun at each other constantly, and Moeller did not fail to put that in the story. Real events are included, like when Alex broke both of his arms playing football.
The reading of this story Thursday at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts was enjoyable for both Timmerman and Alex. Moeller wore a tie, which the couple had never seen before and made them start laughing right away.
"Alex and I just sat there and we had these big dorky grins on our faces the whole time," Timmerman said.
Although the reading brought smiles to their faces, the writing process was a difficult one for Moeller.
"The writing was really hard because it's hard to write about someone," Moeller said. "I was worried about what they would think of it."
He said he discovered that it is much harder to write for other people or about them.
"Too many times when you're writing, it's very self-indulgent. You're writing about yourself a lot," Moeller said. "So if you kind of get out of your comfort zone and write about other people, you learn more about yourself, not only in writing, but just about your personality and how you relate to people."
The hard work paid off for Moeller in a big way. He said this experience has opened up an internship opportunity working with Timmerman, who speaks around the country in a number of different places and travels throughout the world every year. At one point, Timmerman asked for Moeller's help with uploading a video. He called another day to ask a question, and the two started hanging out, hashing out some details and an internship resulted.
"It all just kind of came about with him asking a little question and I just kind of poked more at it," Moeller said.
Timmerman said Moeller got the internship because of his unique background in things Timmerman claims he is not very good at, like audio and video needs while traveling.
Moeller's primary duties will include uploading video while Timmerman is away and contacting various speaking opportunities. The internship has been an unexpected result of the experience for Moeller.
"I didn't really know what to expect from the class," Moeller said. "I didn't know what I was getting into at all."
The class is a requirement for English majors, and Moeller said he dislikes many of the required classes. In the same way, people often only connect to people when they are forced to, but that hasn't been the case with this assignment. A genuine relationship developed which has led to something beneficial for Moeller's future.
At the end of his story about Timmerman and Alex, Moeller described Alex's staged reading experience.
"The spotlight turned on and followed a man as he made his way to a microphone at the center of the stage. ‘It might seem strange to some that Worldview Press decided to publish the work of a 12-year-old,' Timmerman said, ‘but we recognize true talent when we see it. Would everyone join me in welcoming Alex [last name deleted] to the stage.' The audience began clapping. Alex was already in his element as he turned toward the crowd. He waved, blew a couple kisses, stopped to wink at a blonde and a brunette. Both are at least 10 years older than him. After quite the procession, the crowd went silent and Alex began reading."
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