Courage makes a way

photo by Kendra Dahl

When we moved here, I had few work options. I didn't seek a journalism job during our last year in Minneapolis because I felt burnt out – and scared. I thought I should have done more with my time in college. I feared job rejection and, worse, I feared getting hired, then not cutting it. The world of journalism is one of connections – of public image. And if I bombed, all my classmates and former colleagues would see it. 

So I moved, hoping for a writing job, because not only did two years of taking risks outside make me feel more confident in my other skills, but I also felt rejuvenated after working a labor-intensive job where I met all kinds of interesting people that I wished I could write about. It took a few months to get into the newspaper in Bowling Green, but I was never idle. I researched stories and pitched them to places I never heard back from. And I got involved with Wolftree magazine, a growing biannual magazine "for makers, dreamers, and adventurers," that tells stories of people in the Midwest.

I copy-edited an issue before pitching a couple stories. They posted one today – the first in a short series of stories about people and places in North Dakota. The stories are four years old, and they'd been collecting dust on my hard drive all that time. My sister and I recorded them one summer when I could have interned at a newspaper or magazine somewhere else. Reading them again and seeing them published reminds me that, despite the fear I had that my journalistic path wouldn't land me a job, I wouldn't trade the time. I make my own way in life, and that includes this writing / career thing. So far it has served me well. I'm curious and open-minded enough to find what works for me and not feel too hurt when a plan doesn't work out. Actually, that's a lesson I learned my first semester at the Minnesota Daily. If someone doesn't call you back, you adapt. And that's what makes it your path.