I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do with my life when I showed up on campus in the middle of the pandemic almost four years ago. I knew I wanted a bachelor’s degree and I wanted to find employment.

I felt out of place my first year at Simpson. I made some friends but was just trying to survive the monotony of life that existed during COVID-19. It would all change after I slowly fell into the marketing communications major and took a class called Media & PR Writing from the Department Chair of Multimedia Communications, Mark Siebert.

Once that prerequisite was out of the way, and I felt like writing could be something I’d be above average at, I registered to be a part of student media as part of the practicum requirement for my major.

At first, I figured I’d serve my two semesters and move on after my sophomore year, but it would become so much more. I found people that I liked to be around, who wanted to help me grow professionally, and, best of all, who wanted to see me succeed.

I can still remember being the only non-editor who would show up to watch the editors do layout for each week’s edition of the paper, all because I felt at home with the group. It even got to the point that the then Editor-in-Chief, Amelia Schafer, promoted me to Copy Editor so I could help proofread stories each week since I was showing I wanted to contribute more.

That year was the year I fell in love with student media. I started a radio show after that has grown and transitioned to include more hosts, I wrote about the aptly named “Moldgate” that plagued campus in the fall of 2021, and I tried out sports photography and fell in love with it all. Though that was really so I could get into postseason Simpson women’s basketball for free when they went on their March Madness run.

I made that joke a lot looking back, but by diving in with a camera I became fascinated with what I could do with photography. I would do my best to supply The Simpsonian with sports photos almost solely by myself over the next year.

The biggest year I had on the team was last year, of course, as I was named Editor-in-Chief of The Simpsonian, which was an incredible experience. Not only would it be an important year for me because of that, but it was also laden with large stories. 

I can remember writing my opinion article about the school’s administration of the time not caring enough about the students, interviewing people around campus who felt betrayed by the school due to the living conditions they faced in dorms, and, of course, there was the breaking-news story about a student who had previously wrestled for the Storm and had gotten arrested for sex-abuse charges.

That would be the first and only time so far that I have ever been threatened with legal action over doing what I thought was right. But the students deserve to know! I am forever thankful for all the professors who taught me how to handle the situation and the ones who were there for me during it. I’m looking at you, Dr. Steffen.

This year, I wanted to try a different role after feeling kind of burnt out after my stint as Editor-in-Chief, so I transitioned to being the paper’s ad manager. I still enjoyed doing all the little tasks that I had done before, like taking photos, running the paper’s website, writing some cool stories and doing a weekly radio show with my best friends. This year, however, I was happy to say that I had finally contributed to every level of student media. All of it.

I’m going to miss a lot about my time with The Simpsonian, SCTV, ID Magazine and, of course, KSTM 88.9 FM The Storm. I cannot truly thank all the people who have been great friends and great professors. Just know that I am extremely thankful for you all. Writing for campus, having fun with some great people and learning about who I wanted to be and what I could be good at. It’s all given me some of my best memories here at Simpson,  but it’s time for the next step, and I’m ready for it. #marshawasaglueman #iykyk