Farewell Column by Brette Trost | Do what scares you

I have been worried about writing this column all year.

This is only fitting, as it is this fear that has marked my time working for the DP and my entire experience at Penn.

Every single time I picked up the phone to call a coach or speak with an athlete, I was scared. Every time it got to the ninth inning of a baseball game or the final minutes of a basketball game, I would clutch my notebook with the questions I had scribbled down and my palms would get sweaty. Every time I sat down at my computer with a blank Word document in front of me, thinking about my lede would elicit a tiny bit of nausea.

Being a reporter has been one of the most challenging things I have ever done. Working on a deadline, thinking critically quickly and building relationships with coaches and athletes are all things that have tested me. But it is because of these challenges that I have found my four years with the DP one of the most rewarding aspects of my time at Penn.

These farewell columns often come off as trite cliches, with the writer attempting to tie their four years together in one pretty bow or offering some advice that no one will really take to heart, because in all seriousness, what do we know about Penn and college that you haven’t figured out by now?

Nonetheless, that won’t stop me from offering my nugget of “wisdom.”

If my four years have taught me anything, it has been that every student at Penn should find something to do that scares them, something that really challenges and stretches them. If college is easy, you’re doing it wrong.

For me, that was the DP.

Working for DPOSTM tested assumptions I held about my personality. At the same time, it reinforced my passion for writing, something that I will not only do next year, but also hope to do for the rest of my professional life.

I have also persevered through some really tough times, such as attending a game the Sunday after Fling every single year and sitting through a softball doubleheader in the freezing rain only to be told I would not be getting any quotes after the Quakers were shut out in both games.

When I first joined the DP, I didn’t really know what section I wanted to work for, but I immediately found a home in sports. It was fast paced, there was a clear goal attached to what we were writing and it also presented a real challenge: making the student body care about teams that were performing poorly or they had no real interest in (squash, anyone?). It was fun but still worthwhile. and in the end, it taught me the fundamentals of journalism in a way that no class could have.

As graduation draws near, I don’t view this as farewell. TheDP.com will still be one of the websites I check on a regular basis. And when — not if — men’s hoops makes it to the Final Four again, I will be there.

Brette Trost is a senior English major from New York, N.Y. After graduation, she will work as a reporter for the National Enquirer. She can be reached at btrost27@gmail.com.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.