Vex and The Verm: What a Way to Go

I once heard that a singer starts to write about fame when they have nothing else to write about. While I certainly am not famous, I wonder if the same can be said for a journalist. Do they write about their work when they have nothing else to write about?

     When writing my first column I had no idea what I was doing. I had just finished the series “Sex and The City”, and thought “that was fun, why don’t I try it.”

     That new excitement mixed with me wanting to try something new led to “Nathan Goes Greek: A Real Story of Rushing.” For those who did not read it, the title says it all. It was a confessional story following me as I ventured into Rush Week. 

     Perhaps it was one of the hardest things I have written. As a journalist, I am taught to not be biased and opinionated. Having this new freedom to write freely and to share my thoughts was a new concept, I didn’t even know if I was allowed to do it. 

     Now, writing my last column of the semester I think back to it and what I’ve learned. In a way I look back and it’s one of my favorite pieces I’ve written. Not because of the actual style, which is not great and I would have done differently now, but because it allowed me to rethink why I do what I do and the different ways I can do that. It freed me from confinement. 

     I visited my childhood house for the last time this weekend. For 18 years this month, my family has owned that house. Though I felt morose, thinking about who lived there. As I walked through the empty halls, an echoing cavern of nothing but memories, I dramatically turned to almost every crevice in the house and remembered a time that someone sat there, someone that once was me.

     It’s just like my work. I look back at it and I know who wrote it: me, but it’s not. It’s a person who I was. It’s changed for the better or the worse, but I choose the former.