THE DAILY COLLEGIAN When writing life By Phenola Lawrence As soon as I unzip my biodegradable cap and gown, I'm on my way to OK not at that very moment, but ... a week after I graduate, I'm on my way to Vegas. It's an idea my best friend and I came up with while talking one MY OPINION night. "Let's go to Vegas," she said "Let's do it," I said. And just like that. I pulled off what my mom loves to call one of my many "rash decisions." The original plan after gradua tion was to figure out the rest of my life. Fbr whatever reason, Vegas sounded like a better choice. (The movie "The Hangover" might have had something to do with it.) Four years show why senior became photogapher By Abby Drey Everything happens for a reason. It's so cliché and obnoxious when you hear this over and over again in attempts to make you feel better about the crappy situation you've gone through. I was robbed and threatened MY OPINION in the wee hours of the morning in my dorm room my second week at Penn State. If everything happens for a rea son, explain that to me please. "What doesn't kill ya makes you stronger" Yeah, yeah, but why me? Why did this terrible thing hap pen to me tell me one good reason for that? Throygh many sleepless nights and constant support, I finished out summer session and returned This is clearly what my mother must have meant. Sadly for her, these rash deci sions ended up happening quite often throughout my college career. For instance, two weeks ago, I decided to call up a friend and head to Cafe 210. Several hours and $3O later, my white load of laundry was still waiting to be It happened again during my spring break in China, where I missed my group meeting and ended up at a secluded area of an outdoor market haggling with a sketchy street vendor who spoke little English as I spoke no Chinese. And one time. two years ago, I decided to skip my afternoon class to come take a try-out exam at the Collegian. There were a lot of things I should have been doing during those times: folding laundry, read ing for one my three English to Penn State for the fall Everything happens for a rea son. There was a reason that, despite every imaginable reason the photo adviser ( - PL," as we like to call him) could think of to not bring me onto the Collegian photography staff that fall semes ter. I still got the e-mail that said I'd beeh accepted. Several hours earlier, I had sat in his office, my photographs being torn to shreds as I listened to the oddest reasons to not bring me on staff: the traumatizing experience I had over the sum mer had me not mentally ready, I was a freshman and my brother had just graduated from the staff. Four years later, I sit here and think that, though PL still won't tell me the reason he did take me on staff, I know in my heart the reason. I was brought onto a staff of 20 some photographers who took me in without hesitation. For that first group of them, I knew they were the reason I OPINION plans, put them "When I leave the Bryce Jordan Center on May. All of the staffs senior 15 with my cap and gown, I won't be thinking columns can be ktffid on about folding laundry, modernist poetry or the the online Opmiiii - gWe: inverted pyramid." ONLINE psucoliegian.cow:, classes, attending our group meeting or even just going to class. Doing one or all of these things could have probably made my semester a lot easier. I wouldn't be writing 15-page papers the night before they are due or reading a book for one class during another class. But when I leave the Bryce Jordan Center on May 15 with my cap and gown and stand in line to have my photo taken at the Lion Shrine, I won't be thinking about folding laundry, modernist poetry or the inverted pyramid. Instead, I'll remember the laughs shared over a pitcher of Blue Moon, the great knock-off made it through my freshman year. They were always there and willing to listen. They could make me laugh. They would let me sit there and cry, and they would walk me home if we'd hung out until the early hours of the morning and I was afraid to walk alone. I started to spend a lot of my time in the small space we called our office, whether I was actually editing photos or just hanging around on our blue banket-covered sofa and staple green chair that juts into the hallway. Through the years, photogra phers have come and gone, but there is one part of it that has stayed the same: We've always been a family. I've grown from being the baby to the rowdy teenager to the grandma in the matter of eight semesters. We laugh and go out to eat as a family, and we even fight and make up like a family And through those moments wallet I brought from the street j vendor in China before the police came and the days and nights spent in the basement of the Collegian. After spending the last year designing and laying out what I expected the front page of the Collegian to look like every day, I learned that you could never real ly know how things would hap pen. Redesign is usually necessary, and just like life, it never really goes according to plan. You may have a sketch, but it isn't final, and you have to be flex ible. From deciding to attend a party last minute or not going to "I've come to the conclusion that everything . , does happen for a reason, and everything includes the good and the bad to the beautiful and the ugly." when my photography has not been up to par, this family was the reason I would always stay. I could go and shoot for another media outlet, but they wouldn't be my family. Every new introduction and tearful goodbye shines through in this photo family. Each semester has been its own journey and has been filled with ridiculous adven tures and entertaining photo graphic proof of everything we do together. There is a reason we're all working at the paper, and it's to learn more about photography. But photography isn't the only reason to many of us. I've learned how to be a college student, how to lift someone's spirits when he or she is down, TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 21 in penal class, they are the small, unex pected news events in our *- time that comprise our collOge experience. There have been many Miles where I have had to start mover and redesign the front pagibtif the Collegian. Although I may not have,. always enjoyed starting from scratch, it made for a betterprod uct. I, too, have a rough front-page sketch for my life. I just made sure I did ititipen cil. Phenola Lawrence is a seniorring in journalism and is the C011e6:14% Visual Editor. Her e-mail address is pmlso2o@psu.edu. • how to be a leader and how to pass on the knowledge I've learned to those who will my shoes when I graduate. Each person who has boon staff has had their own reason for being there, but they haveall affected my life. So I've come to the conclusion that everything does happen for a reason, and everything includes the good and the bad to thelteau tiful and the ugly. All the things that haveimp pened to me in my time heieat Penn State are the reason). urn who I am four years later:, Abby Drey is a senior majoringitl4ho tography and is the Collegian's PUto Editor. Her e-mail address is _ aldsl23@psu.edu.
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