Photos from ICPAs weekend The Xavierite
I would be nowhere near the person I am today if I did not step out of my comfort zone and join the Xavierite.
I was never necessarily bound to my comfort zone, I absolutely love a good adventure, but that does not mean that my love for familiarity did not hold me back sometimes. While growing up, I passed up plenty of opportunities out of fear.
So when I found myself telling my COMM-101 professor (Vincent Davis, Ph. D.) that I was interested in becoming a news writer for the Xavierite after he asked the class about the position, I was shocked.
Looking back now, I think the fates must have guided me to that response. Whatever the reasoning behind it, I am grateful.
The four walls of the Xavierite office have become my second home over the last two and a half years. Sometimes I think I might spend more time there than I do at my actual home.
In my mind, the laughter of my friends and I constantly echoes down the Media Center’s hallways. We are probably laughing at something that in all honesty might not be super funny, but to us is absolutely hilarious.
The Xavierite, by nature, pushes you out of your comfort zone. At least it did for me.
I was as quiet as a mouse during my first year at SXU, and while I am still on the quieter side now, I am nowhere near as silent as I once was.
I attribute this to the Xavierite. In my time here, I spoke to so many different people each week, and each week I grew more and more comfortable with that. It is nerve wracking to reach out to people with questions for an article when you are not really sure what you are doing.
Yet, I did it anyway. I stepped out of my comfort zone, and it paid off.
I have met people that I am honored to call my best friends for life, and I have met so many amazing people throughout the campus.
I have also discovered a shocking love of research, and I have had so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
I attended the Illinois College Press Association (ICPA) Awards this past Feb. with a handful of my fellow staff members, which is something that I had never dreamed of doing before joining the Xavierite.
Now, I wish I could attend the awards every year. I went from not knowing what ICPA even stood for, to having that weekend be one of my fondest memories of my time at the Xavierite.
None of that would have happened if I never stepped outside my comfort zone, and I am so glad that I did.
If you told me in high school that I would 1. work for a newspaper, 2. become the Deputy Editor-in-Chief, and 3. fall so in love with it that I would seriously consider staying in college for a fourth year because I could not bear to part with it yet, I would not have believed you.
All of those things were so outside of my comfort zone, and now they are some of the things that I am most comfortable with.
Things that I love with my whole heart.
You truly never know what you are going to enjoy. I mean, I certainly had no idea that I would love journalism so much that I would change my major. But as it turns out, I do.
You could find something that you may love more than life itself just as I have, and even if you end up not loving it, you may meet your future wedding party.
The worst that could happen after stepping out of your comfort zone is that you lose a bit of your time, which in the long run is a small sacrifice to pay for the possibility of finding your calling. Even if stepping outside of your comfort zone just ends up with you finding something that you are not the fondest of, you still get experience and a good story.
I am once again stepping out of my comfort zone as graduation approaches, but thanks to the Xavierite I know I will be ok. I do not want to leave, but it is time to take that leap.
Please, step outside of your comfort zone. It is scary, and it is hard, but it is worth it.
My experience is proof that good can come from the unfamiliar, so just think about what stepping out of your comfort zone can do for you.