Four years ago I decided to try to become involved with school the best way I knew how, join an art club. Unfortunately, that did not come to pass due to my lack of confidence in any sort of art skill that I may have had, so I joined the next best thing for me, the school newspaper.
Within a few months of joining The Campanil, I rapidly rose the ranks from random-first-year-who-helped-with-layout to Assistant Design Editor. Then, around three weeks later, I received an email from my editor; she is going to Australia and wants to know if I would be the new Design Editor.
Overnight production days, sharing fries, crying, inside-jokes, trips to the store and even more crying. That was the next three years of The Campanil for me, and it was definitely an experience.
I was often one of the very few science majors in the room, so I could not always complain about the difficulty of lab and Immuno exams. However, The Campanil was also my way of breaking out of the confines of the Natural Science Building. Some of the most real-life things I learned in college were taught right in that blue-green (now eggshell) office, one of the most valuable of which was to be more critical of information and institutions.
Being a first-generation college student, I constantly questioned if I belonged here. However, I was extremely fortunate for the connections I made in The Campanil, which became the support I needed in order to navigate each year at Mills.
It is fitting that at the end of my time at The Campanil I finally accomplish one of my long-term goals to finally become a staff writer.
