August 25, 2020 | By Shweta Agarwal

Shweta Agarwal (A21) spent the summer catching up with Johnnies to find out how they’re spending their socially distanced time away from the Program. This week, she spoke with Amy Porter (A21) about writing, illustrating, religion, community, and more!

Many students come to St. John’s College because of the uniqueness of the Program; the practice of reading, writing, and encountering myriad perspectives that can help them establish a new, diverse intellectual foundation. Alternatively, many other Johnnies arrive at St. John’s only to realize that this education aligns with the way in which they already love to learn. The latter was true for Amy Porter (A21)—but St. John’s was not an easy find.

In 2017, Porter had already enrolled and committed to another university in Lynchburg, Virginia—but in late May of the same year she realized she wasn’t looking forward to it. The lack of excitement was a red flag for Porter; so much so that it led to a change in decision. Hoping to find a smaller college that also offered a central focus on literature, Porter started a second round of applications. That’s how she discovered St. John’s—the only college on her list that provoked true enthusiasm. Even today, with the college recently deciding to move the fall semester online, Porter remains excited for senior year and all the learning and fulfillment it will bring.

Currently, Porter is at home in Shady Side, Maryland, running an online Etsy shop, Paddle East, with her mom, and working on a variety of writing projects. Porter always dreamed of becoming a writer, a passion fostered early in her childhood. When she was young, her older sister (also an aspiring writer) had a “Secret Writers’ Club” that Porter wasn’t allowed to be in. While the Secret Writers’ Club collaborated in one room, Porter would run off to another room to write on her own. “The people I looked up to and admired were writers,” she recalls. “As a child, I thought this is what adults did when they were grown up, and I saw myself as a writer as well!” Porter crafted her first piece at eight years old; since then, she’s only taken it more seriously.

This summer, Porter has been taking a third stab at a longer piece, the general theme of which has to do with memory and grief. When she was 17, she tried to formulate the same idea into a 150-page novella—“which was terrible, but I am still proud of myself for writing it,” she says. Porter describes her writing style as exploratory: usually she wants to use writing to solidify an idea or a feeling for herself. With that in mind, she often begins her short stories with only a little planning, a starting point, and a sense of how she wants to proceed. “There are some ideas that play in the back of my mind for a long time, and I feel like I owe it to myself to flesh them out.”

This exploratory style is present not only in her writing but also in her illustrations and artwork. Porter usually works from imagination, and she describes her general aesthetic as “something that I can picture in a children’s book.” Many of her drawings are now part of her online store in the form of bookmarks with literary quotes, stickers, prints, greeting cards, and more. “My mom likes to market them as ‘whimsical,’” she explains—one of many adjectives that seem fitting. Porter’s childhood has been integral to what continues to inspire her today, and at St. John’s she has found more direct ways to explore her deep-rooted feelings and ideas, including her religious views.

As a Christian, some of the most impactful seminars for Porter have been the ones that revolve around religious works. She is deeply grateful for the space she has been given to explore Christian ideas and philosophy with people who don’t share her faith. “I was a Christian before St. John’s and I am still a Christian, even more so now,” says Porter. She believes St. John’s has helped her better understand Christianity with a sense of openness and from an enormous variety of perspectives. “No questions are off-limits,” she says. “It is reassuring to hear how people from other walks of life see the beauty in the Bible. It is such a rare privilege to have a serious discussion about faith and God without the added anxiety of social barriers.”

A community like the one she’s found at St. John’s—loving, giving, and full of intellectual variety—is one that Porter is naturally drawn to. It’s part of why she loves her current onilne internship at the Maryland State Archives, which she discovered during her freshman year. “I work under the historical preservation and education department and have uncovered a lot of interesting information over the years,” says Porter. “I researched one project which involved transcribing the diary of a local farmer in 1812. For another project during the same time period, we were researching the legacy of slavery and writing biographies for both enslaved people and enslavers.” Looking at the U.S. census, army records, newspapers, ship records, birth records, wills, and more usually provides Archive employees with fragments about a person that they stitch together to form a coherent narrative—a process Porter thoroughly enjoys. “How fascinating is it that people who lived more than 200 years ago still have a findable footprint!” she adds.

Additionally, Porter has spent part of her summer working on the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame project, researching Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a former EPA employee and whistleblower who inspired the passing of the first Civil Rights legislation of the 21st century. As a whole, such projects form an inspiring and fascinating body of work that Porter loves to engage with. The Maryland Archives offers her access to intriguing history; it also fosters a collaborative and close-knit community that Porter truly treasures. “It’s not an area you get into for money,” she says. “It’s an area you get into for love.”

The summer is already drawing to a close, but Porter is keen to dive further into her writing and artistic endeavors. She has been reading War and Peace—the senior year summer reading­—and has also been thinking about her senior essay topic; “My sophomore year essay was on Richard II and I have always enjoyed literature—perhaps I might circle back to Shakespeare for fun, who knows,” she says. She’s also been considering her post-St. John’s future; she hopes to go to graduate school for library science, but amidst current worldly fluctuations, all her plans require adaptability. “I have been trying my best to hold everything as loosely as I can,” she says.

The future is uncertain and unknowable; however, even with all the unpredictability of our current time, Porter remains passionate and grateful—and she’s looking forward to seeing how her journey unfolds.