How Did I get here?
For as long as I can remember, I have been a storyteller. In my early years I verbally recounted tall tales of the adventures I embarked on with my friends (both real and imaginary). But from the first time I could put words down on paper—even if they were spelled phonetically and incorrectly—I was a writer.
I made menus. I poured my 5-year-old heart out in “Poochie: My Funtime Diary.” I wrote letters to my family. As I got older, I reveled in school writing assignments. As a middle schooler, my outspoken nature and love of writing combined as I began having Letters to the Editor published in the local newspaper. In 8th grade I wrote a controversial editorial for my parochial school paper in which I called out our PE teacher’s misogyny. By high school, my lifelong dream of teaching English evolved into a desire to pursue journalism. I scheduled a meeting with a local newspaper columnist I admired and sought her advice.
High school is also where I really honed my writing skills with the guidance of Mr. Wagner, whom I was lucky enough to have for both Honors English II and AP English. A stickler for diction, Mr. Wagner banned the use of superfluous words like “truly” and “unique.” (“Don’t just say something is unique,” he would tell us. “Show us.”) It was a thrill to see the letters “GW” written on my paper, indicating he approved of my word choice. To this day, Mr. Wagner’s words “You’re not knitting!” ring through my head, reminding me to connect my thoughts and weave a thread throughout my writing. Those words and other lessons carried throughout my professional life and equipped me as I mentored interns or helped family and friends edit their own writing.
As a college freshman, I quickly learned newspaper reporting was not for me. I excitedly submitted my first assignment for the school paper—a story on the alumni football tailgate—only to have my dreams crushed. “This is great,” the editor told me. “But it’s just too colorful, too many adjectives.” Right then I knew it was time to pivot. With a little research, I determined Kent State University would be a better fit. There I could pursue a degree in Journalism with a focus on magazines.
Although I still wrote for the KSU paper, the Daily Kent Stater, I found editors and mentors who appreciated my take on feature writing. I also discovered a way to put my love of grammar to use, as Chief Copy Editor for two of the student-run magazines. Before graduating, I spent a summer interning for a regional magazine and had one of my published stories selected as one of the school’s for the Hearst Journalism Awards.
That internship led to my first “real” job where I worked my way up from Associate Editor to Managing Editor and immersed myself in all aspects of magazine publishing. When I felt the need to move on, I changed directions and pursued a role in higher ed marketing. It provided new challenges and the opportunity to master website content management systems, social media marketing and copywriting. An added bonus? I still got to write. Newsletters, alumni magazines and other publications offered plenty of outlets for me to tell the stories of students, faculty and alumni. It was the best of both worlds.
