2008 Woodie Awards
The quiet ones are always the loudest
And you thought I was quiet
Erin Joyce
Issue date: 12/14/04 Section: Forum
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It would be unfit of me to focus on politics, religion, or social injustices for my very last Quad column. For those of you who haven?t shared the same viewpoints as I do, feel free to rejoice at the notification of my graduation. For those of you who turned to the Forum section first thing when grabbing that weekly issue of the paper, I thank you.
I?m actually not quite sure how to end things, but it must be on a positive note, for I would hate to leave a sour taste in your mouths. So if my train of thought seems a bit jumbled, forgive me, for this is a challenging task.
Since the fall of 2000 I have attended this university and I hated it in the beginning. It wasn?t until I found my voice that I found my confidence.
There are always those people in class who have no trouble speaking up and sharing their opinions on issues that are most
quarrelsome; I, however, was not one of them. I sat in the corner or the back of class with my eyes diligently engrossed in my notes beneath me, never raising my hand for fear of ridicule.
Perhaps the most important skill I?ve gained throughout my fourand-a-half years of higher learning is just that: to speak up, no matter the consequences.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." This perspective, to me, is the driving force behind my sometimesloved, sometimes-hated article ideas. Of course there are a few that I regret, but I don?t regret the expression of those ideas.
I?ve had my fair share of negative responses over the past yearand-a-half that I?ve written for the paper, but those negative responses are a constant reminder to me that people read my column because what I have to say interests them and makes them contemplate an attitude other than their own. If I leave here having made no mark, my time
here would have been a waste; however, I?ve obviously made the vast majority of my readers, at the very least, meditate on important issues that should matter in our everyday lives.
I?m actually not quite sure how to end things, but it must be on a positive note, for I would hate to leave a sour taste in your mouths. So if my train of thought seems a bit jumbled, forgive me, for this is a challenging task.
Since the fall of 2000 I have attended this university and I hated it in the beginning. It wasn?t until I found my voice that I found my confidence.
There are always those people in class who have no trouble speaking up and sharing their opinions on issues that are most
quarrelsome; I, however, was not one of them. I sat in the corner or the back of class with my eyes diligently engrossed in my notes beneath me, never raising my hand for fear of ridicule.
Perhaps the most important skill I?ve gained throughout my fourand-a-half years of higher learning is just that: to speak up, no matter the consequences.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." This perspective, to me, is the driving force behind my sometimesloved, sometimes-hated article ideas. Of course there are a few that I regret, but I don?t regret the expression of those ideas.
I?ve had my fair share of negative responses over the past yearand-a-half that I?ve written for the paper, but those negative responses are a constant reminder to me that people read my column because what I have to say interests them and makes them contemplate an attitude other than their own. If I leave here having made no mark, my time
here would have been a waste; however, I?ve obviously made the vast majority of my readers, at the very least, meditate on important issues that should matter in our everyday lives.
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