A Love Letter to Her Campus: What I’ve Learned & How I’ve Grown

I completed my freshman year of college during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was at home, out of state, without any friends at UMass, as no one from my grade was attending with me. I felt incredibly disconnected from my university, and I wasn’t sure how to find things to get involved in while I was eight hours away from campus. 

I kept myself busy during the fall semester with an internship and classes, but it didn’t feel like it was enough, especially when I couldn’t often leave the four walls of my bedroom. 

At the end of the semester, at the insistence of a friend that I’d met during my internship, I applied for Her Campus. 

I remember feeling worried that I wouldn’t be accepted and that my proposed pitches for articles weren’t good enough, but lo and behold, I was accepted as a content writer for the spring semester. 

My Spring 2021 semester in HerCampus was the start of something wonderful. I was introduced to a fantastic mentor and an equally excited fellow mentee. I attended Zoom meetings and social events and finally got to exercise my passion for writing. I looked forward to the meetings and spent so much time perfecting my pitches and articles. I was appreciative of every piece of feedback from my content editor, and Her Campus brought me and my friend who encouraged me to join a lot closer. She’s now one of my roommates, and we’ll be in the same city after graduation. 

Two years later, as I am graduating from college, I can’t even begin to describe how much love I have for Her Campus and the community it gave me. I’ve learned to be proud of myself and celebrate my own accomplishments. I learned to appreciate writing and the stories I can tell through it. I learned so much.

When I finally stepped foot on the UMass Amherst campus in the fall of 2021, I knew that I already had a place with my Her Campus friends. I felt less worried about finally being on a college campus for the first time because I knew that I already had a group of people that I could count on and spend time with. 

My mentor from the previous year brought me and my fellow mentee to Blue Wall for the first time, Her Campus meetings encouraged me to venture into parts of campus I never would have explored otherwise, and I continued to write articles about all kinds of topics. I wrote pieces that I am especially proud of and will continue to be proud of for a very long time. 

Her Campus gave me the opportunity to engage with the UMass community on another level and allowed me the space to produce writing pieces that I never had an outlet to do before. I feel proud of my writing now, and I am not as scared to show others what I can do. 

I am forever indebted to the wonderful people and Her Campus family. I can’t wait to continue reading the fantastic articles that other members continue to produce, and I will continue writing articles about things I love for myself in the future. 

I wish everyone at UMass Amherst Her Campus the best, and congratulations to my fellow 2023 graduates!

HCXO,

Lucie 

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