I’m sitting here in my home in Morristown, New Jersey, writing my final article, thinking to myself about how this isn’t where I should be. I should be in The Weekly’s office, my feet on my chair with my knees resting against the edge of the table, my laptop resting on my lap.
I began writing for The Muhlenberg Weekly September of my freshmen year. Believe it or not, I remember signing up at the activities fair discussing with one of the editors how I was an editor for my high school newspaper and how I loved to write features, especially about people. Like most students, I signed up for a billion clubs at the fall activities fair. However, unlike most, before attending meetings of multiple clubs to figure out which ones I wanted to be an active member of, I only attended the interest meeting for The Muhlenberg Weekly.
Since then, I have been writing for the Arts & Culture section, covering events such as Creed Bratton’s and Jojo’s performances, articles about student artists on campus and student-directed plays. Each article was different but allowed me to do what I love: to write about people.
Throughout my four years writing for the newspaper, I had both ups and downs, but that never stopped me from showing to the editors before me my interest and passion for writing. I looked up to the editors and anticipated and learned from their feedback hoping that maybe one day I could become an editor like them.
The few times I visited the office before becoming an editor, I was scared. Don’t get me wrong, everyone at The Weekly is very friendly and welcoming, but I looked up to these student editors so much that I didn’t think I belonged in their office, since I wasn’t like one of them. I shouldn’t have feared the editors. We, as editors, are here to help! I’ve come to realize that the office is actually a calm and fun environment, even during Tuesday night productions.
Eventually, I realized that as an editor, writer or photographer we all share one thing: our passion for creating and contributing to our school’s one and only newspaper. Yet, never in a million years would I have thought I would become an editor of a college newspaper; I thought it was just a dream.
It was the second semester of my junior year when the Arts & Culture Editor emeritus, Lauren Mazur ’19, texted her section’s writers asking if anyone of them was interested in becoming an Assistant Arts and Culture Editor. Of course, being the fast replier I am, I scheduled a time to meet with Lauren.
A majority of my first few weeks attending production nights while training to become Arts & Culture Editor, I mainly observed and just read over already edited articles. Yet, despite not having too much responsibility, it was exciting to see my name listed under the editors as Assistant A&C Editor. Eventually I was given small tasks, such as writing article summaries and captions and I was both nervous and excited about having this new responsibility and power.
On the final production night of my junior year, I was given the entire responsibility of all the editor tasks for Arts and Culture for the final issue of the semester. I was so scared that I wasn’t capable enough, but I was wrong. I knew what I was doing and although I may not have done a perfect job, I did fine and learned from my mistakes.
This lesson of learning from my mistakes is something that I always kept in mind as Arts & Culture Editor during my senior year. Having the entire responsibility of a newspaper section was stressful at times, but really gave me the opportunity to be creative. I got to decide what events would be covered in my section; I assigned events to other writers and for myself; I wrote captions. I loved having so much responsibility.
I am grateful that although a majority of my final semester of college was spent off campus, one thing that did not change during my four years at Muhlenberg was my ability to write for the newspaper. Being able to still write during this time of social distancing gave me some normalcy, despite all these changes.
Writing for The Muhlenberg Weekly has given me so much experience in many different aspects of journalism and it has truly been a wonderful experience. Although I am uncertain of my future after Muhlenberg, I know that I can use the skills that I have learned from being an editor and writer for The Muhlenberg Weekly for my future career.
