Hi there, it's Major. Today we're reaching into the archives to bring you an episode from

Ada Limon's time as host. I'm thrilled to revisit one of her episodes with you. And don't worry,

the team is hard at work on a relaunch with a new host.

I'm Ada Lime, and this is The Slowdown.

When I finished graduate school, I was lucky enough to receive a fellowship to the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center in Cape Cod.

I still remember my best friend T. driving me from New York City to my house at the center.

This was right after September 11th, only two weeks to be exact, and we were raw and hung over and frightened.

Everything was riddled with the intensity of the time.

After I settled in and T drove back to Brooklyn, I walked around town and found the path of rocks called the breakwater that led to the long point light station.

The walk was about nine miles round trip.

The first day I did it, I loved being alone out there.

I went from the wounded and terrified city to the isolation of the sand and the sea.

I'd rarely ever see anyone out there, sometimes someone walking their dog, a fisherman or two,

close to the shore. I'm prone to anxiety and living in Cape Cod after September 11th was no balm for the racing mind and the pounding heart.

What worked was walking, walking for a long time, and then sitting by the ocean.

Alone with all my worries and dreams and desires. When winter came, it was harder to do that long walk to ease the bloodstream, but I could

still find my way to the ocean.

Even though the fellowship wasn't even halfway over, I kept worrying about what was next. I had very

little money, no job prospects, and all I knew was that I really wanted to write poems. I'd walk

by houses on commercial street and think that it would be so nice to have a little money to buy a little house

by the sea. But I barely had money for the cheap wine at the drugstore and relied mainly on the

meals that my boyfriend was making as he worked his way through the entirety of the Marcella Hazan

...