July is the month we say goodbye to writers who are retiring or moving on to new adventures, and this is Kate’s last post. She has been writing with us since August 2023.
The first essay I was going to submit for the post calvin was about being vocationless. But it was really just a self-indulgent pity party. So instead I wrote one of my favorite essays, Ode to the Atlanta Driver.
Then I was going to write about a questionnaire I got at my job to get to know me. I was going to write the fake corporate answer and then the real answer.
Next, I was going to write a post about being the dungeon master for my first time playing D&D. After the first session, drunk with power, I never understood why anyone would complain about playing god. But then as I kept going, I realized being a deity was a little exhausting. So the narrative got a little complicated.
Then I tried writing an essay about third places, which I ended up re-writing to be specifically about my favorite pizza place.
Next I was going to write about being an ex-granola, but now loving to play video games. I was going to maybe talk about the kid who beat Tetris, and somehow incorporate my feeling’s about Calvin’s outdoor rec community. All I know is that the post was going to hinge on the line, “Some of you need to touch less grass.”
And then there were the pieces that never even made it to paper. How awful my college graduation was because it was an elaborate way to give the retiring president Le Roy a pat on the back. I almost wrote about the aquarium, about my approaching wedding, and about my cats one more time for good measure.
I think this is what I’m most grateful for about the post calvin. Before I joined, I had stopped writing since graduating college. I was bogged down by projects I started in college that I felt like I had to finish. But the post calvin gave me a reason to step out as a writer once more, and see who I had become after the classes were done.
I got to practice a lesson I learned during my writing degree. The art of writing is as much about the stories we don’t tell as it is about the stories we do. It’s the details we leave behind, it’s the blanks you have to fill in, it’s the skill of knowing when to bite your tongue.
I had run out of things to say, and this platform gave me a space to learn to hold back. Now as I step down, and give the twenty-second of the month to a writer who might need to learn the same lesson as me, I am grateful for the things you let me say, and for the posts I didn’t write.

Kate DeHaan started Calvin as an engineering major and graduated (’22) with a bachelor’s in writing. She is currently working as an executive assistant for Mercer University’s student affairs. She also writes her own blog (LosingKate.com), practices martial arts, and takes full advantage of her apartment’s pool.
Kate, it’s been lovely reading your posts for the last year. Not being able to have my own cat (yet) I loved hearing about yours. Wishing you all the best as you move on from this place.
seconded!
Thank you so much! I’ll be sure to keep reading everyone’s posts!
Thanks so much! I hope you’re able to get a cat soon 🙂