30til30: day 30, editing the andersonian

i have 30 days until i celebrate my 30th year of life. i thought i would share with you 30 people, events and situations that have shaped my life and who i want to be. it has been very challenging to come up with 30…i hope it inspires you as it has me. this part of the list is in no particular order.

day 30: editing the andersonian, our weekly college newspaper

i was a lowly freshman when i saw an ad in the weekly newspaper for an associate editor. inspired, i applied and later that week experienced by first late night (early morning?) editing the paper with kyle. though i had edited our high school newspaper, this was obviously a different ballgame and i learned a lot from kyle, specifically about writing and about our campus.

as the end of the semester, kyle quit. that left only me to edit the paper. our supervisor hired a co-editor for me, but it was a long and difficult semester for us both. neither of us was a journalism student nor did we truly knew what we were doing. our slogan for the semester was, it aint easy being green.

i entirely surprised myself when i met with our supervisor at the end of the fall semester my senior year to tell him i was interested in editing again. this time around, i alone was responsible for all the staff writers, including practicum writers whom i graded, the photographer and editorial staff. we had a blast in our office in the little communications department house just off campus. lots of late nights and pizza runs. lots of laughter and stress and creating.

it was an experience i wouldn’t have traded for the world.

from it, i became a better writer. a better editor. a better leader. i learned to communicate more clearly with those around me, verbally and through writing. as a leader, to share in the glory of a job well done and to shoulder the blame when i allowed mistakes. to genuinely take pride in my work and what we were able to create. to see that i could be responsible for something far larger than myself.

my last semester editing the andersonian planted a deep seed within my heart to be a writer. it’s a seed that has slowly germinated and, at this point in my life, i’m not sure where it will take me. but, it might not be there at all if it weren’t for that semester of writing and dreaming and creating.