Written by Emma Grosskopf
I started working with the Brackety-Ack during the first semester of my junior year. I honestly don’t know why I waited that long to do it, because I had been an editor of my high school newspaper in Fredericksburg, and it was something that had always appealed to me. I guess when I got to college, I needed some time to learn how to balance my social life, my academics and my extracurriculars.
Whatever it was, when I started working with it, I immediately knew that I wanted to be Editor-in-Chief after David Hall. I wanted to expand, I wanted more color, I wanted a more diverse staff, I wanted exciting content. I wanted it all.
So in January of my junior year, I took over as Head Bitch In Charge. Immediately, I was overwhelmed. I didn’t really know how to run an organization, and balancing all of the crap I had going on was proving to be harder than expected. I had a much bigger staff, which only grew when my senior year started and I decided to add two new pages, Lifestyle and Food/Wellness. Part of me felt like I was just shooting myself in the foot and adding too much pressure. “Eight pages was excessive”, a little voice in the back of my head told me.
Eight pages is literally nothing. I have finally figured this out now, as I’m about to graduate. My change of heart was due entirely to what was definitely the most important lesson I’ve learned with the BA, and arguably the most important lesson I’ve learned at Roanoke College.
Trust.
It’s not easy for me to trust the people around me. I don’t know if this is because I’m a Scorpio, a micromanaging freak or just someone who needs to control everything all the FREAKING time, but I learned at this job that if you don’t trust the people who you work with, everything falls apart, and I end up having a mental breakdown in a bathroom somewhere, bawling my eyes out because I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.
My staff, full of people who I have grown to not only value as coworkers, but love as friends, are incredible. They rise to challenges. They are a safety net of emotional support, and they put out a kick-ass product. I’m glad I figured this out and learned this lesson, because NEWSPAPER IS A TEAM SPORT. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything with the BA if it hadn’t been for them, and for the time we spent together laughing, singing, crying, meditating, shouting, arguing and panicking in the Garrett Media Lounge and all of the lessons I’ve learned, I am truly and eternally thankful.
