2008 Woodie Awards
Community helps writer challenge personal beliefs
Elizabeth Miller
Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: OpEd Page
I've learned to write what I mean and mean what I write. In the process, I've learned how to live according to my beliefs and to believe in the way I live. I learned that it's more important to be myself than to be accepted. Not to mention, it's tiring trying to be anyone but yourself.
But these last three years haven't just taught me to grow as a writer. I've grown as a person. I recommend that everyone develop a healthy irreverence for others' judgments before you leave college. Part of my growth as a columnist and as a student is that I realized that I couldn't go along for four years with a lukewarm complacence about what everyone else before me said. Not to say everyone is meant to be a revolutionary. I'm certainly not one. I'm not even rebellious, nor do I think you have to be to make a stand and have influence.
In fact, I've found that sometimes it's more important to wisely choose your influencers than to be "the individual." In the past four years I've become whole from the pieces of the influencers in my life. My housemates (fondly called The Blue House) have shown me that true friendship doesn't have time boundaries and that some of the most needed conversations come at 2 a.m. the night before an exam. My parents have shown me that love doesn't have a price tag, but that an unexpected $20 bill is more than just money in college. My professors showed me that patience is not just a virtue, but a gift-especially when I ask the same ridiculous questions again and again.
The influential people, experiences and lessons at Miami have given me the confidence to be exactly who I am, but still open to growing. As a columnist, I appreciate the Miami student audience who has let me mature as a student by writing these columns. So thanks everyone for reading, and thank you for helping me find my voice.
But these last three years haven't just taught me to grow as a writer. I've grown as a person. I recommend that everyone develop a healthy irreverence for others' judgments before you leave college. Part of my growth as a columnist and as a student is that I realized that I couldn't go along for four years with a lukewarm complacence about what everyone else before me said. Not to say everyone is meant to be a revolutionary. I'm certainly not one. I'm not even rebellious, nor do I think you have to be to make a stand and have influence.
In fact, I've found that sometimes it's more important to wisely choose your influencers than to be "the individual." In the past four years I've become whole from the pieces of the influencers in my life. My housemates (fondly called The Blue House) have shown me that true friendship doesn't have time boundaries and that some of the most needed conversations come at 2 a.m. the night before an exam. My parents have shown me that love doesn't have a price tag, but that an unexpected $20 bill is more than just money in college. My professors showed me that patience is not just a virtue, but a gift-especially when I ask the same ridiculous questions again and again.
The influential people, experiences and lessons at Miami have given me the confidence to be exactly who I am, but still open to growing. As a columnist, I appreciate the Miami student audience who has let me mature as a student by writing these columns. So thanks everyone for reading, and thank you for helping me find my voice.
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