I started attending Quinnipiac University in the fall of 2020 during a pandemic when all my classes were online, and I couldn’t leave my room without a mask. 

I was terrified of joining the first Chronicle meeting of the semester, but I knew I wanted to write. Seeing so many new faces on a Zoom call was extremely intimidating, but I decided to stick with it week after week. 

All the members of The Chronicle were immediately welcoming to me and answered all my questions. At the time, I had no idea how to interview or even how to properly write a quote and they supported me through all of it. 

My first article was about the prospective student tours operating during COVID-19 with former News Editor Emily Flamme, I only interviewed journalism majors, not knowing I wasn’t supposed to. This led to the story having to be completely restructured, so I’ve definitely come a long way since then.  

Spending Tuesdays in the media suite, going to Chronicle dinners and everyone sending memes in the group chat truly made me feel a part of the organization and like I had a place to feel accepted and understood on campus. Being a quiet person, I did not know if I would ever find that at Quinnipiac. 

My first role as the associate news editor taught me a lot about how to find story ideas and how to cover a variety of topics. I was scared to get out of my comfort zone, constantly having to go up to new people and deal with the rejection of them not wanting to talk to me, but I refused to give up because I was still so passionate about what I was doing. 

It wasn’t until my last semester as the associate arts & life editor that I felt like I finally evolved into the journalist I’ve always wanted to be. I finally stopped trying to be the person I wanted myself to be and started doing what I really wanted to do. Once I started, I couldn’t stop thinking of all the people and events I wanted to write about; it was as if I didn’t even have enough time to fit it all in. 

My last stories in my e-board position included a drag brunch hosted by the Quinnipiac University’s Gender Sexuality Alliance and my opinion on breaking the stigma around drug addiction. I love that I got to cover such a fun event and was able to share my own thoughts on a topic so important to me before I left the organization. These are some of the stories I’m most proud of. 

Talking to other members on e-board, I realized that I couldn’t be afraid to be myself and I needed to just express my opinions, whether it was at Coffee and Critiques or editing others’ stories. I needed to just start trusting my judgment and stop second guessing everything. 

There were times when I was so stressed out from The Chronicle, I cried in the common room of my suite or I wanted to scream opening the Google Doc and seeing a million edits on my story, but it ended up all being worth it in the end. I learned so much about myself and gained confidence in my abilities not only as a journalist, but as a person. 

As a graduating senior, the advice I would give to the underclassmen is to take advantage of every opportunity, even if it is something you aren’t sure you’ll be good at or are nervous about. It’s also perfectly okay to change your mind, you don’t have to always stick with the same thing. I know everyone on e-board now is going to do great things, and I will forever be thankful for the memories everyone has given me the past four years.