Content Writer,
Campaign Finance Board,
New York State Government
What year did you graduate? What majors/minors did you have?
Answer: I graduated in 2007 which feels like many lifetimes ago...probably because it was. The world feels like such a different place than the one I graduated into but then again it also doesn't. It's still a world filled with endless possibility and adversity simultaneously. I graduated as an English Writing Arts (Creative Writing) major. My road to that path was winding. I entered Oswego as a Broadcasting major, mainly because I had attended a high school with a Broadcast TV program that I thoroughly enjoyed. When I got to Oswego, that life path didn't seem quite right for me anymore (it's college, you change and experiment until you find what works!) I considered Journalism and Philosophy (which both held some interest for me), but after enrolling in a Creative Writing course in Fiction, I found my home. Creative Writing felt like what I was searching for...what we all search for, especially in that time of our lives: an opportunity to find my voice.
Where did the English degree take you?
Answer: That's a complex question. Your degree doesn't really take you anywhere necessarily. It's a tool that you have at your disposal but a tool can only take you so far: you have to do the building. If you've ever built Ikea furniture, you can appreciate just how hard that is. I graduated at the height of a recession. Job prospects were slim. I spent a lot of time after college in a state of perpetual confusion about what I would do and how I would get there. Having a writing degree does not make you a writer. Writing especially is a craft that you work at for the rest of your life.
Basically, I did a little bit of everything. I worked in federal government jobs, after-school programs with young children, and in every other office job you could imagine before landing at a local college library archive where I was finally allowed to write: I wrote everything from website articles, grants, speeches, descriptions of archival materials, you name it. That eventually led me to where I am now in my work as a Content Writer at a NYC government agency known as the Campaign Finance Board which helps candidates run for local offices, gives money to candidates to run campaigns, and which also runs a voting initiative to engage all New York City residents to vote. That program (and the content we create to reach potential voters) is the focus of my day-to-day work.
What from your English classes shapes how you engage in the world today? What do you especially remember from the major?
Answer: I have very clear memories of the creative fiction and non-fiction stories classmates workshopped even all these years later! And I especially remember the feedback I received from classmates on my work. Workshopping the things you write can be a vulnerable, character-building experience but it's a necessary one. You learn how to listen to feedback, and it helps you understand how people are receiving the things you write. It teaches you both about the kind of writer you are and maybe even about the person you are too based on how you respond to that feedback. Workshopping taught me so much about collaboration, revising, and rethinking my work. But it also taught me how to remove ego to make things better and how the simple act of listening to others can make you a better person as a result.
Tell us about the challenges you face(d) after graduation (getting a job, etc). How did you navigate those challenges?
Answer: How much time do you have?! Post-college life was filled with...well...lots of life. From navigating the loss of a parent to managing the complexities of being a young adult and riding the wave of all that entails. I spent a lot of my time down on my luck and not always able to find stable work (least of all work connected to my writing degree), which filled me with all the self-loathing and desperation that comes with that. But I'd say two things helped me get through it all. The first is the most cliche but true: my insistence on never giving up. There is not always a clear path to anything in life, especially not a career. But you have to keep trying to find out what works, what you want, and what you don't. The other thing that led me to overcome those challenges was having a clear goal. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my degree and how I would find stability but I knew I wanted to write. I now work in a job that allows me to be creative, write every day, and connect with lots of people through that writing. And for that, I feel truly fortunate. But it was not easy! None of it. But maybe that's just how the story goes sometimes, and that's ok.