It was freshman year, midnight on a weekday.  I receive an email… “Did you email Malala’s father?“– that’s all it says.  Fury builds up in me and I feel tears come to my eyes.  One of my teammates, who lived on the same floor in Ray as me, came bursting into my room asking “Did you see the email?!?”  She was frustrated too.  Beyond that, we were both in awe and couldn’t believe that was the response we got in asking for help. A little context:  we were completing interviews for a group term project–my team’s focus was education, hence the reference to emailing Malala’s father–one interview needing to be international, and ours kept falling through.  Out of desperation and not knowing how to move forward, we asked tom for some guidance.  And his only response was about emailing the father of the girl we were reading about.  It seemed unfathomable and so incredibly unhelpful.  But, as with many of the frustrations that come with taking a class with tom king, there were many lessons learned.

Throw your net far and wide, you’ve got nothing to lose.  That lesson, although challenging to learn in the moment, is one of the reasons I learned how to use my voice, to reach out and ask questions, and to make things happen.  Fast forward to sophomore year; I contacted the photographer of the What I Be project (check them out!) the day I saw his work for the first time, and stayed in contact with him until we made it work for him to come to campus the following semester.  Without learning that lesson, I may have not even thought it was a possibility to bring something I was passionate about to campus, just because I could.

I can list plenty more examples of how that lesson changed my time at PC, but it continues to be part of who I am, even after having graduated.  I’m currently living in the Philippines (who would have guessed?) interning for a company that could lead to my future career.  The confidence I’ve built since learning to reach as far as I can have led me here.  Not only that, but I’ve pitched proposals for the company to my supervisor and the COO without hesitation.  I’ll be meeting with them about my ideas soon, so the outcome is TBD, but the point of the matter is that I’m fearless in trying, in reaching out.  Because really, what do we have to lose?  So my advice to you . . . Be frustrated, but don’t let it settle or cloud your perspective.  Take a step back and look at the bigger picture.  Don’t be afraid to push back, but don’t be afraid to be wrong.  And mostly, don’t be afraid to learn and grow and challenge and question everything–even your own thoughts and assumptions.  (Also, don’t be afraid to befriend tom, he is one of the dearest people in my life, who I carry with me everyday.)