MATTHEW BAUM
Scallion Editor
It’s been over a year since we’ve had the luxury of meeting and talking with Geraldine Wilcox and her former roommate, Savannah, and we at the Scallion wanted to hear how this dynamic duo has been handling the 2020-21 school year, given all that’s happened.
When we last spoke with the Wilcoxes, Geraldine was a history major, living in a modified double and going around campus in a customized Class Cart.
Since then, Wilcox has changed her major to creative writing, and modified her course load so that she only has to take virtual classes from her apartment in Queens. Savannah, whom she used to share a suite with, is living off-campus with her partner and chose not to respond when we reached out.
In response to the world turning upside down when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S., Wilcox leaned into her passion for adult fiction and began publishing an ongoing series of historical fiction novels entitled “The Demands of Sir Kipling’s Court,” which has earned her much virtual praise. There are even talks of the first novel being nominated for a Booker Prize for Fiction, a major award in the literary world.
In a written statement, Wilcox said that she was “trying to find a tasteful balance between bold and careful, just like everyone else on this balance beam of life.”
Apparently, she has made a choice to put a down deposit on an apartment building in Laurelton for young artists to call home, while staying on track to graduate with the Class of 2022.
All of this, while trying to stay afloat in a sea of responsibilities regarding mental and physical health, familial obligation and the ever-rising price of pygmy shrews, would be a lot for many to take on, but 15-year-old Wilcox says she’s up to the challenge.
“It’s fascinating to me, the way my whole life has shifted in the last year. I used to think I had a future in leading people on museum tours. Museum tours! Could you even imagine? No. This life, the life of creativity and expression, is the life for me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”