My four-year-long codependent relationship with The California Aggie
By ALLISON KELEHER — adkeleher@ucdavis.edu
Long ago in Davis, a little undergraduate student applied to be a volunteer layout artist for The California Aggie. Spoiler alert — I’m the little undergraduate student. I entered UC Davis with a background in graphic design, and with absolutely no aspirations of pursuing that as a career, I sought out organizations on campus that would allow me to express myself creatively. Lucky for me, I found the only position that solely worked with my favorite Adobe Program: InDesign. Every Sunday night, I could be found in my first-year dorm room slouching over my laptop, creating new layouts for the newspaper.
As I neared the end of my first year, my aspirations grew, and I took a leap into a new position at the newspaper: distribution manager. I was thrilled by the idea of driving around campus in a white van to deliver newspapers. It was a unique experience, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity. However, my brief rendezvous with slinging newspapers came to an early end. It was a tough decision, but I realized I had taken a position with the newspaper that didn’t provide a creative outlet — which was the reason I had joined in the first place.
Meanwhile, I was also enduring second-year struggles surrounding my major and career path. That year of my undergraduate life was filled with uncertainty, as I took classes for a major I didn’t enjoy and kept a job that didn’t fulfill me. At the time, it was difficult to work through that discomfort in order to find myself — dare I say, the classic college experience. If there’s any advice that I can give about that, it is to trust your intuition. Things have a way of getting better with time and all you can do is be there for yourself through it all.
Moving forward, I entered into a time period of my life which I dubbed “my bootstrap era.” This essentially means that I was working on myself and doing what I felt was right for me. Or, picking myself up by my bootstraps. I highly recommend labeling it this way: It makes the process way more entertaining. This was when I was blessed with the volunteer humorist position at The California Aggie.
It all started when I pitched my love story about the G and the J Unitrans bus lines during my interview. Thankfully, the hiring staff wasn’t scared away by my bus fanfiction, and I was bestowed with the honor of being a humorist.
With this position, I felt like I was challenging myself creatively again — things were back on track. My first article was the G and the J story, which effectively launched my micro-career in UC Davis humor writing. To this day, I meet new people who say they have this one story pinned on their walls at home. My debut in the newspaper was a success. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to write little stories for the newspaper and expose my strange sense of humor to my classmates and colleagues. All I can hope is that my future employers don’t Google me.
My experience as a UC Davis undergraduate student was uneven and all over the place, but that’s what makes it fun. There are so many opportunities available and it takes pretty much four years to sort through all of them to find the ones that fit. I am excited to carry this experience — and this digital footprint — with me as I grow my professional career.
Written by: Allison Keleher — adkeleher@ucdavis.edu
