If you told me four years ago that I would have ended up running a podcast, I would have told you that was impossible — that I didn’t have the guts.
During my first days on Grounds, my first-year roommate and I both applied to the paper, leading to my ultimate admission to the Copy desk. While everyone told me the transition to college would be difficult, the day-to-day adapting was lonelier than expected. I came into the University as a pre-medical student, a decision based partly in that I knew I wanted to help people, but mostly because I got an A in high school chemistry. I immediately learned that college chemistry was a little different — I hated my classes, yet spent countless hours trying to find an undiscovered passion within the bounds of the Chemistry Building. In reflection, it is clear that passion never existed and was rooted in a refusal to “give up” or let my parents down.
I felt unbelievably out of place amongst peers who had forever yearned to be physicians. I, however, yearned to find some avenue for creativity to escape my coursework and ultimately, what I envisioned to be a routine two-hour block of my week became much more. The Friday 2 p.m. copy shift quickly became a place of comfort, joy and community, despite how mundane it may have seemed. I still wonder if those seemingly silly hours meant as much to those around me as they did to me…