Causing a stir
The more time goes on, the more amazed I am by the plausible effects of the written word.
Last week, a guy made a comment that I strongly disagreed with in the newspaper that serves the school communities of all three schools down here. The comment, made in reference to my beautiful women's college, reinforced a negative stereotype held by a portion of the students at our larger brother school. I won't go into too many details. It's difficult to fully understand the implications of the remark unless you have a close understanding of the relationship between these schools. Essentially, the comment may seem flippant or even amusing to an outsider, but to those who live down here and experience the underlying attitudes behind the comment every week, it was a big deal. The girls here were pretty upset about it, as was I.
So, in a burst of passionate frustration, I decided to do what I do best - vent on paper. I went straight to my room, sat down, and wrote out a letter to the editor of the paper. I had two of my friends look at it, made some minor changes, and sent it in. Whew! It felt so good. After that, I figured that I'd just wait to see if it got printed and go from there.
As it turned out, the article was accepted into the final layout stage. A good friend of mine (also a Sarah!) who works as a copyeditor of the paper managed to fit the article into the "Viewpoint" layout, and the following day (Friday October 7) the letter was printed.
Imagine my shock when, within hours of the paper's release, I'd already recieved several e-mails, facebook messages, and even hugs in reference to my letter. So far I've recieved an incredible amount of support - it's overwhelming! I was sent one nasty e-mail, but the person didn't even have the guts to send it from his/her own e-mail address (yes, that's right... they took the time to create an anonymous "Jane Smith" e-mail account just so they could insult me without having to sign their own name...) so I'm not going to bother with it. Aside from that, the responses just keep trickling in. I've recieved two e-mails from alumni of Saint Mary's (one is the Assistant Director of Activities here, the other lives in Springfield, Illinois!) as well as countless messages and even friend requests on Facebook. I got an e-mail from Kristy today, and apparently the letter caused a stir with the students over in Rome too! She forwarded the letter to her RA, who sent it to other people she knew and alumni of our school. I don't even know how it's spread so much. People I know leave me occasional voicemails, or stop me on my way to class to talk to me about it... it's the most bizarre feeling in the world. All I did was voice my opinion in defense of the school I love, and it's gratifying to discover that other people feel the same in support of our cause.
The whole situation amuses me greatly. It's kind of nice to realize how much the written word can influence people - sometimes you reach a point with your writing where you wonder if anyone even bothers to read it. But I guess that if you have something worth saying... writing can be a powerful tool.
I plan to improve upon this tool and keep it with me, just in case more situations arise in the future. Until then, I'm just going to let the waves created by this drama die out!
Last week, a guy made a comment that I strongly disagreed with in the newspaper that serves the school communities of all three schools down here. The comment, made in reference to my beautiful women's college, reinforced a negative stereotype held by a portion of the students at our larger brother school. I won't go into too many details. It's difficult to fully understand the implications of the remark unless you have a close understanding of the relationship between these schools. Essentially, the comment may seem flippant or even amusing to an outsider, but to those who live down here and experience the underlying attitudes behind the comment every week, it was a big deal. The girls here were pretty upset about it, as was I.
So, in a burst of passionate frustration, I decided to do what I do best - vent on paper. I went straight to my room, sat down, and wrote out a letter to the editor of the paper. I had two of my friends look at it, made some minor changes, and sent it in. Whew! It felt so good. After that, I figured that I'd just wait to see if it got printed and go from there.
As it turned out, the article was accepted into the final layout stage. A good friend of mine (also a Sarah!) who works as a copyeditor of the paper managed to fit the article into the "Viewpoint" layout, and the following day (Friday October 7) the letter was printed.
Imagine my shock when, within hours of the paper's release, I'd already recieved several e-mails, facebook messages, and even hugs in reference to my letter. So far I've recieved an incredible amount of support - it's overwhelming! I was sent one nasty e-mail, but the person didn't even have the guts to send it from his/her own e-mail address (yes, that's right... they took the time to create an anonymous "Jane Smith" e-mail account just so they could insult me without having to sign their own name...) so I'm not going to bother with it. Aside from that, the responses just keep trickling in. I've recieved two e-mails from alumni of Saint Mary's (one is the Assistant Director of Activities here, the other lives in Springfield, Illinois!) as well as countless messages and even friend requests on Facebook. I got an e-mail from Kristy today, and apparently the letter caused a stir with the students over in Rome too! She forwarded the letter to her RA, who sent it to other people she knew and alumni of our school. I don't even know how it's spread so much. People I know leave me occasional voicemails, or stop me on my way to class to talk to me about it... it's the most bizarre feeling in the world. All I did was voice my opinion in defense of the school I love, and it's gratifying to discover that other people feel the same in support of our cause.
The whole situation amuses me greatly. It's kind of nice to realize how much the written word can influence people - sometimes you reach a point with your writing where you wonder if anyone even bothers to read it. But I guess that if you have something worth saying... writing can be a powerful tool.
I plan to improve upon this tool and keep it with me, just in case more situations arise in the future. Until then, I'm just going to let the waves created by this drama die out!
posted by Sarah @ 10:23 AM
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