Ledger

Early last spring an event happened that changed my experience at the University of Washington Tacoma, and in effect, my life’s trajectory. I overheard the guy behind me in my Literary Genres class talking about the Ledger. I didn’t give the school’s paper much attention: I was a busy full-time student with a preschool-aged child and a household to keep running smoothly.

But I had just had a bad dining experience, and I wanted to let the world know about it. I asked Nick Przybiciel if I could write a review. He countered: did I want to be the Arts and Entertainment Editor? And I said, "uh, sure."

And so, with a little over 25 credits left to graduation, I took on a responsibility that would propel me into student involvement at UWT, and eject me from my insulated world of term papers, play dates, and dinner planning. Granted, all those things still figured in my day, but I had to learn to add more events, add deadlines, and juggle them all.

As it turned out I could juggle all those things, although it meant making sacrifices, occasionally disappointing my family, and stressing myself out. It turned out my experience in the Ledger enhanced my education, as it enhanced my civic engagement within Tacoma. It turned out the Ledger and the experience I gained there, led me to a job opportunity that I may never have pursued, and placed me firmly into a job that I adore.

Early in my UWT experience, I wanted to move through my education as quietly as I could. I wanted to put in my time – in the classroom, and through the studying and paper-writing— get good grades, and prove myself better than my previous college transcripts would suggest I was.

I discovered through my first professors Cheryl Greengrove and Claudia Gorbman, that UWT professors are an amazing and dynamic group. They aroused my interest and interaction with their infectious love for their subjects. More professors, with their different teaching styles and varied specialties, proved equally effective in conveying the ideas they were presenting, and again and again I found myself interacting, sharing their enthusiasm with my own.

But my involvement in the U as an entity was the missing link.

Joining the Ledger meant I was an identity outside the masses. Joining the Ledger meant I was Google-able. For me it was the perfect marriage of creativity and energy with a tangible outcome, and it fed me; it led me to the belief that I could do what I loved and make money at it. My involvement in the Ledger, and my subsequent identity as a part of the Ledger, changed my life. I’ve gone from mild-mannered aspiring teacher to journalist covering topics as varied as embedded troops to after-hours ballet-dancer-partying.

If I hadn’t taken up that caffeinated co-scholar’s request for involvement, I might today be en-route to a classroom of 9-year-old kids who hate me. But I became involved, found something different, and went for it.

Involvement, I believe, is the key. Here at UWT, involvement for you might mean actually raising your hand and adding your voice. It might mean seeing something that needs to be done—like, on-campus daycare –and implementing a program. Or it might mean joining a group or submitting a piece to a campus publication. It might even mean putting yourself "out there."

For me, putting myself "out there" was often uncomfortable. But, for me as a 37-year-old student, simply being at school was uncomfortable at times. Through that discomfort, I have grown, sprouted wings, and am learning to fly like I never knew I could.

And it’s the coolest thing I’ve experienced yet.