20 minute read
Opinion
e Curtain Call Student media changed my life in the best possible way.
Emily Hunter is a senior journalism major and writes “Speak Out” for The Daily News. Her views do not necessarily refl ect those of the newspaper.
A word of warning to communications underclassmen: Professors will try to scare you into joining student media.
From the moment you step foot in your JOUR 101 classroom, they will drill into your head that journalism is a competitive fi eld and joining student media will give you the experience employers are looking for. They’ll quote statistics about how students involved in student media are more successful than those who aren’t — like you’re wasting your time and money if you don’t join.
But if you’re anything like me, student media can become a giant looming over your college career, swallowing you in its shadow. You’re constantly battling your social anxiety, signing up for Slack channels and email chains, but never actually stepping foot in the Unifi ed Media Lab (UML).
There is truth to what they say: Student media looks fantastic on a resume and allows you to build your portfolio. But you shouldn’t join because of fear of what will happen if you don’t. You should join out of excitement for what will happen when you do.
I decided to join student media at the beginning of my sophomore year because I felt like I had to. I wasn’t completely interested in writing, but other than my classes, I didn’t have any journalism experience or connections to people in my major. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I prayed for a sign.
When I checked my email less than an hour later, I had a message from The Daily News in my inbox.
I can confi dently say that joining student media changed the trajectory of my life. I went in questioning my major and came out with a passion for journalism I didn’t even know I possessed.
The Daily News allowed me to nurture my love of copy editing through shadowing on print nights while also giving me a space to explore my options as a journalist. I found a niche in opinion writing and have written six published columns over the course of two years, including this one. I came full circle during my fi nal semester of college by
becoming copy director – the same position I shadowed during my fi rst semester with The Daily News.
I took a leap with Byte during my senior year by responding to a call-out for students interested in recording a “Dungeons & Dragons” (D&D) podcast. I had absolutely zero podcast experience with recording or listening, but my love for D&D and my urge to get involved with Byte overruled. After a full semester recording episodes of what came to be known as “Roll for Immersion,” I’m happy to say that leap was unquestionably worth it. The hours spent in the studio laughing and rolling dice quickly became one of the highlights of my semester.
The growing confi dence student media gave me pushed me out of my comfort zone in the best way possible. I created content I was proud of and sent my parents pictures and links of every story I wrote. No matter how many stories you publish, the excitement of seeing your work in print or online never goes away.
I am also incredibly grateful to student media for the friends it gave me, because I didn’t have many before. Whether they be fellow editors or podcast cohosts, I am truly blessed to have them in my life. In times where I was doubting myself and my abilities, they gave me the extra push I needed to be the best possible version of myself. To them, I say thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
All of this is what makes it so hard to be graduating this year.
It’s never too late to get involved with student media, but my one regret is that I didn’t do it sooner, especially since I am graduating in three years instead of four. My time was already limited.
So, another word of warning to the underclassmen: the semesters will pass by quickly. Take advantage of the amazing opportunities you don’t even know you have.
Ball State student media has left a beautiful legacy that’s rich with history and talent. I feel honored to have left my mark on it, just as it has left its mark on me.
Contact Emily Hunter with comments at ekhunter@bsu.edu or on Twitter @emily_hunter_01.
Emily Hunter
Columnist, “Speak Out”
RYLAN CAPPER, DN
In the grand scheme of things, everything lacks significance until you provide it.
John Lynch is a senior journalism major and writes “Fine Print” for The Daily News. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper.
On my mother’s side of the family, we have a saying that has guided us for the last three generations: “Do it, do it best.”
Coined by my greatgrandfather, that dedication to a strong work ethic has driven my family’s endeavors in our family business for 50 years.
Work ethic is everything to me and my family; when I turned twelve, I received my first work permit so I could pitch in at the machine shop we run. That work ethic has served me well in the world of journalism — which is why I was so nervous when I struggled to find the right way to write my final column.
Unfortunately, there are a finite number of things you can say about graduating from college.
That’s the trouble with being an opinion writer and editor — not only do your ideas need to be good, they have to be new.
Readers like satisfying beginnings and endings. One of the earliest tricks I try to teach my opinion writers is to end their stories where they start them. It’s a simple but incredibly effective trick, one that I think reflects a very human need for symmetry in our experiences and stories.
But reality is not like our stories, much as our expectations would like to suggest otherwise.
More than anything else, we want our actions to have significance, no matter how small, and, in truth, writing for a college newspaper feels small. However, in relative terms, so does everything else.
But isn’t that lonely?
Loneliness is a feeling that came to dominate my college life, creeping its way into my mind through every tool at its disposal. COVID-19, anxiety and living in a new state for college made making connections difficult, but working at The Daily News patched those holes for me.
There isn’t a professor or class in this university that has taught or given me half as much as The Daily News has, and if you’re a journalism watch your old friends move on to more interesting places and parts of their lives.
But, if anything, we give ourselves the gifts of significance in everything we do — college paper included.
The Daily News has given my college life a feeling of significance. It’s given me experience, tools for my career and plenty of stories beyond the ones I’ve shared on the page.
During my time at Ball State, I’ve written more than 80 stories for the paper, from my earliest article on David
But isn’t that lonely?”
student, get the actual value out of Ball State’s Department of Journalism by joining a student media organization. It’s a small start, but one you should value and hold tightly to, nonetheless.
Yes, it can feel small, biding your time and working for a paper like The Daily News, even in its 100th year of operation.
It can feel small completing years of your college education from the confines of your bedroom or living room, even if you pass the classes.
It can feel small living in Muncie, Indiana, while you Letterman from before I even started college to this farewell column you’re reading now. I’m known to be a person who says “yes” to most things, and I think that’s evident in the way my storytelling abilities have improved and impacted the community around me.
It hasn’t always been easy — I’ve had my share of setbacks and downright nasty comments on my columns and articles — but overcoming those struggles has only made me more driven to improve and prove myself.
That feeling was tremendously important to me during the worst of the pandemic in particular. I could be dying of social isolation and drowning in self-pity over the college experience that was being taken from me by things beyond my control, but there The Daily News would be with another story for me to cover or deadline to meet.
More than anything, though, The Daily News has given me a sense of place. I wouldn’t be the journalist or person I am without the people around me who shaped me.
My social circle may have shrunk, but my colleagues and family at The Daily News were always there for me, whether we were face-toface or miles apart.
Success, value, the love between friends and coworkers — these are gifts we don’t know the value of until they’re gone. To a certain point, that will be missing from my life once my time at The Daily News is over in just a few short weeks.
But I know I won’t ever really be alone again, thanks to the family I’ve found here.
You’re not alone, and neither is your voice. It just needs the right people to lift it up, the way The Daily News has lifted mine.
Thank you to my amazing fellow editors, my wonderful opinion writers and everyone in my life who said I could do it if I just pushed a little harder.
Thank you, the reader, for reading. Thank you for making me feel significant, when nothing else did.
I hope my best was enough.
Contact John Lynch with comments at jplynch@ bsu.edu or on Twitter @ WritesLynch.
before I sat in my bright red plastic chair, lowered it as close to the ground as possible and powered up my desktop in the Art and Journalism Building’s Unifi ed Media Lab to print my fi rst edition of The Daily News as editor-in-chief, a former editor-inchief and the big sister I never had told me sitting in that chair would get lonely.
It’s not necessarily that I didn’t believe her, but at fi rst, I couldn’t possibly see how I could feel lonely in a room I considered my second home, surrounded by people who had become my best friends over the past four years. I knew the job wouldn’t be easy, but I had my chosen family behind me, and they were all I needed.
I was three months into the job when I felt it for the fi rst time.
The more stories I edited and pages I sent to the printer, the lonelier I began to feel, and I couldn’t fi gure out why. An editorial board of more than 20 friends and coworkers gathered in the conference room every Monday and Thursday night to plan the week’s paper as a team, and I spent nearly 12 hours every Wednesday dodging Nerf footballs and hitting 10,000 steps running around to help everyone who needed me.
The fi rst three months were a nonstop adrenaline rush. Every hour I had went to The Daily News, and if I didn’t have any left, I pulled the time from somewhere else. My experience as a student journalist taught me the newsroom is a second home for a lot of people, and when you spend that much time together, you become a family in the best and worst of ways.
I was never alone, but when the only company I had was Slackbot letting me know I had another problem to solve and yet another friend to disappoint at 2 a.m., the following four hours of my night that I spent overthinking were some of the loneliest I have ever felt.
Those nights are partially on me, because despite the support system I had behind me in former editors, professors and an adviser who always had my back, the biggest challenge I faced was in supporting myself, and that’s entirely natural for a college student still trying to fi gure out who she is.
I’m pushing my bright red chair in for the last time days after writing this piece — my fi nal goodbye to The Daily News. After publishing more than two dozen editions from the same seat my “big sister” sat in two years before me, I fi nally understand what she meant when she warned me I would feel by myself sitting there, too.
I also realize it’s because I had the opportunity to sit in her seat that I can say I do understand, so how can I expect anyone who hasn’t done the same to understand the position I am in now?
There is nothing I wouldn’t do for a single person on the editorial board, and I did all I could to prove that for longer than I’d like to admit. I turned a job I dreamt of performing as a freshman news reporter into an endless chain of lose-lose situations.
I no longer just felt alone. I felt like a failure, too, and while those who did support me constantly reminded me I was succeeding, I have never been the type to see the glass half-full.
When my lock screen went days without a single text notifi cation and I knew a decision I made turned friends into enemies for the time being, I turned to a handful of emails from another former editor-in-chief I’ve collected in my inbox since late last August. Compiled, they’re long enough for me to turn into a little book. While I appreciate every little critique and note the sender of these emails took the time to include, the fact they took any time at all to remind me they had my back mattered to me most, and I felt less and less alone every time I got to star a new email to keep forever.
I didn’t hold onto those emails because I had no one else to talk to, but because I felt there were only so few people who understood what I was going through and believed in my ability to come out on top, and sometimes, all I needed was a reminder that someone else just like me came out on top, too.
Communication between both of those friends and I hasn’t been consistent, but it’s because of our one common newsroom experience as editor-in-chief that it doesn’t have to be. No matter when I reach out, they are always there.
It’s because of their willingness to share their experiences as editor-in-chief with me, and the support of a handful of others along the way, that I not only made it through my time in the role, but am ending it as confi dent as I have ever been in who I am as an editor, a writer and a person.
The freshman news reporter I was in 2018 felt blood rush to her cheeks every time one of her editors complimented her stories, not out of humble embarrassment, but rather an overwhelming fear of stepping on the toes of those around me.
The sophomore lifestyles reporter I was in 2019 didn’t expect to become managing editor instead of lifestyles editor either, but just because no one expected it doesn’t mean she didn’t deserve it. And she defi nitely didn’t need to hear that she didn’t deserve it for another two years after getting the job and proving that, actually, maybe she did.
I am happy to say I no longer feel the need to prove myself to those who don’t believe in me because I have learned to care more about the incredible people who do, but I carried those discouraging conversations in my already too-heavy tote bag in and out of the newsroom with me for two years before I decided to replace the weight of their words with advice I had from two former editors: “It doesn’t matter if anyone else believes in you as long as you believe in yourself.”
The bright red chair sitting at the fi rst desk in my pod of computers haunted me at the end of every print night as I turned to leave the Unifi ed Media Lab — forever representing the more capable, confi dent people who wouldn’t doubt every decision they made, only to inevitably spiral into a state of overthinking in which even I convinced myself I didn’t work hard enough to earn the opportunities I’ve received. Now, when I push in my chair’s bright high-back at the end of the night, I know I earned it all.
The Daily News may have taught me almost everything I know about journalism and writing and editing. It may have helped me fi gure out what I want to do for the rest of my life, and it became my purpose all throughout my college career.
But the most important thing The Daily News did for me was help me fi nd my self-worth, and after 22 years of endless doubt in myself, there is simply no possible way for me to express how thankful I am for everyone and everything that helped me fi nd my confi dence again — through passion, paper and the long-overdue acceptance that not everyone will always believe in me and what I do. What matters most is that I believe in myself.
After years of believing I didn’t deserve to lead this paper, I am proud to say my story has a happily ever after, because now, I fi nally believe I deserved it all along.
Contact Taylor Smith with comments at tnsmith6@bsu.edu or on Twitter @taywrites.
Choosing Gratitude
RYLAN CAPPER, DN
Grace McCormick
Columnist, “Mother of Muses”
College during a pandemic isn’t ideal, but there are still good elements to remember.
MY HIGHLIGHTS FROM EACH SEMESTER
Fall 2019
Making friendships quickly and having free time to hang out with new friends
Spring 2020
Traveling to tournaments with my speech teammates
Summer 2020
Spending time with my family and successfully taking three summer classes
Fall 2020
Academic success and being welcomed to The Daily News editorial board
Spring 2021
Getting vaccinated and having hope for a return to normalcy
Summer 2021
Being able to balance working, additional classes and free time
Fall 2021
Developing closer friendships with my new roommates
Spring 2022
Spending more time with the speech team and trying to make it my priority
Grace McCormick is a senior journalism news major and writes “Mother of Muses” for The Daily News. Her views do not necessarily refl ect those of the newspaper.
As I sat in front of 15 of my close friends in a dimly lit hotel room, I was sure I would cry.
I had been thinking about what to say to these people, a group who have made every interaction I have with them fantastic, a group of friends who I will no longer see multiple times a week after I graduate.
But instead of feeling sad to leave, I felt energized and happy for all the memories and friendships we’ve cemented. Instead of crying while speaking to them, I laughed and expressed my appreciation for everyone’s dedication and love.
This was two nights before my friends and I competed at the 2022 National Forensics Association (NFA) tournament. Ball State’s speech team placed in the top 10 teams in the nation and advanced multiple speeches to phases of the fi nal elimination rounds. I can’t express in words right now how proud I am of my teammates for their spirit.
Speech is the only activity in my college career that I’ve felt consistently welcomed, appreciated and celebrated, so saying goodbye to it was hard. On the van ride back to Muncie, I remembered the 2020-21 school year of completely virtual speech tournaments and how diffi cult it was to only see my friends in profi le picture boxes on Zoom. Having an in-person tournament to cap off my speech career while the COVID-19 pandemic continues was far from normal, but it seemed like a metaphor for my entire college experience.
Each of the three years I’ve been at Ball State have been affected by the pandemic. When I talk to my parents and their friends, they often tell me how they wish I had the opportunity for a better experience, but the reality is I have no idea what a better college experience would have looked like.
The pandemic has affected the entire globe, and the virus itself has killed more than 6 million people worldwide. I’m lucky enough to not have personally known anyone who died from COVID-19, so I have no objection to sacrifi cing parts of my college experience when so many people have it a lot worse.
Throughout these past three years, I have always had the option of throwing pity parties for myself and focusing on what I’ve missed or lost. I sometimes think about how my life would have been different without COVID-19, but I can never form a clear picture in my head. I would have gone to Washington, D.C. in spring 2020, to Mexico City in spring 2022 and have had the opportunity to attend in-person award ceremonies for the Department of Journalism.
Would those additional experiences have made my life better? I don’t know. The pandemic has unfortunately become so ingrained into everyone’s experiences that I think a lot of us would rather not think about how life could have gone without it.
If not for COVID-19, I probably could have developed closer relationships with my coworkers if we had been able to safely gather and travel outside of the Unifi ed Media Lab. I can choose to remember how I lost that when I leave The Daily News in May, or I can remember how the editorial board still had a team spirit when I fi rst became a news editor in fall 2020.
Beyond the pandemic, I can choose to resent my professors for assigning time-consuming homework or resent myself for taking 18 credit hours each semester, but I don’t want to spend time wallowing in negative emotions.
I know I have immense privilege to be able to do this at all, but I’ve chosen to remember the highlights and good things that happened in college in spite of the pandemic. I have experienced this hopefully once-in-alifetime event with my friends and family, and we’ve relied on virtual communication to get through it together.
Obviously, I can’t just wash away the bad memories from college, but I can be intentional in which experiences I document in photos, notes and friendships. I have my whole life ahead of me to refl ect more on my college experience, and I’m sure I’ll wonder how I accomplished everything I did during the pandemic.
I’m sure no one wishes they entered, experienced or graduated college amid a pandemic, but it’s a reality we all have to deal with. In most cases, I fi nd I can still be grateful for something, even during hardship.
Choosing gratitude amid challenging times might not be easy for everyone, but I would encourage you to do the same, no matter the unexpected circumstances life throws at you next.
Contact Grace McCormick with comments at grmccormick@ bsu.edu or on Twitter @ graceMc564.
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