Begin at the beginning…

Sarah Muir
MSMU Class of 2018

(5/2018) The time has come for me to write my last article as a senior for Four Years at the Mount. It is astonishing how fast this day has come, but what is even more surprising is how much has happened over the last four years. My time at the Mount will always be a highlight of my life and I will forever value the education I have received here and the friends I have made along the way. It is hard to believe how I have changed and in what ways I have stayed the same as I ever was. I have always found retrospectives to be difficult and it is dauting to be faced with the task of condensing my university experience down to one thousand, or so, words. But, to take advice from Lewis Carrol, the best way to retell a story is to, "begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop."

I was lucky Freshman year. I heard horror stories about roommates ranging from mild inconsideration to downright unbearable behavior. However, I managed to find an old friend that I spent a majority of my childhood with to be my roommate. She was an education major and I was undecided at the time, oscillating between English and History until my second semester when I landed comfortably into an English Major. We never fought, very rarely got on each other nerves, and bonded over our propensity to binge watch tv shows. After our freshman year, we both became commuters and while we do not see much of each other we keep in touch. She is now on her way to becoming a magnificent teacher (in fact, she won the Teacher of Promise Award a few weeks ago).

My freshman year was also when I was presented with the opportunity to join the Emmitsburg News-Journal team. I remember that it happened completely by accident. I was at a retreat before the term started called, Mountward Bound. It is a retreat for incoming Freshman to meet people, participate in community service, and get advice from upperclassmen. I mentioned during one of the icebreakers that I enjoyed writing. A week or so later, I got an email from one of the leaders on the retreat, Lydia. The newspaper was looking for a freshman student writer and she wanted to know if I was interested. I sent in a writing sample and the next thing I knew, I was the new Freshman writer for the Emmitsburg News-Journal. At first, I did not speak much at the meetings. I suffer from bouts of shyness and, at the time, they were more frequent. However, the small family of the newspaper was going to mean more to me over the next four years than I could have ever imagined. At the time it was under the management of Kathryn Franke. She was a phenomenal managing editor and to this day I try to fill her shoes and handle the paper with the same grace and aptitude she did.

My sophomore and junior years were a whirlwind between work, school, and my sister’s imminent wedding. By the end of my sophomore year I was the assistant managing editor of the newspaper and by the start of my Senior fall semester, I was brought up to managing editor. It was a shift, but I adapted well enough. I think the transition was made easier because my new assistant editor, Shea, is an excellent person to have on your team. Slowly, the paper found some fresh faces and hired some new writers.

When the New Year and the start of the spring semester rolled around, I was preparing for my next adventure. Study Abroad: London. It was the single most thrilling and terrifying experience I have ever done, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. While I made new friends, being alone in another country teaches you things about yourself that you did not know before. For example, I am not as hopeless with directions as I originally thought (I mean, I am no Davy Crockett, but I can navigate a strange city with more successes than failures). The greatest thing I learned though, during my time away, is that the entire world is outside your front door and yours to explore. There is so many things that you do not know, or could even dream of, and discovering them is attainable.

This leads me to senior year. While it has had its pitfalls, there has been more highpoints than low. Graduation will be bittersweet. For while I am excited to see what the world has to offer, I will miss the family I have made here at the Mount. However, I will always hold my time spent here close to my heart and look back fondly on the memories I have made.

One of the achievements that make me the proudest is that I have been able to see the writers I have brought on board grow into strong young minds. I have written for this newspaper for four years, and though this is not my last article for the newspaper, I know that soon I will type my last word for the Emmitsburg-News Journal. I know in my heart of hearts, that the paper has a bright and lasting future ahead of it and that my time with this newspaper will be an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Read other articles by Sarah Muir