Home. When I committed to Marquette, I knew I needed to find a home on campus.

Never did I think that it would be the second floor of Johnston Hall. A place that I remember touring in February 2019 as students worked on their stories and video edits. The place that I stopped in for a brief tour of during my junior year of high school eventually became the place where I found my sense of belonging at Marquette.

It is the place I met with my friends as we laughed until our stomach hurt. The place that I edited video packages with my friend, Caroline Bennett, until the wee hours of the morning. The place that I will look back on and remember as some of the best parts of my Marquette experience.

It took me a bit to find my way to my home on campus, but I am very thankful that I made it there. My first year of college was my first time being away from home, even though I only lived a little over an hour away.

I was an anxious college student who was struggling to find a connection to the campus during the pandemic. My senior class was deeply affected by the COVID-19 restrictions, and we did not have the same college experience we were promised.

I lived in a double dorm room by myself as my assigned roommate decided to not come for the year and take classes remotely. I attended my classes and met up with the friends that I made in the dining hall.

Even though I am very grateful for those relationships that I still have to this day, I still wanted to build more connections on campus outside of the ones I had made. Finally, I took a leap of faith and decided to join The Marquette Wire as an Assistant Entertainment Producer for Marquette Lately.

I was connected with a family friend, Kate Hyland, and she persuaded me to apply for Marquette University Television. A month later, I was in the newsroom teaching myself the ins and outs of Adobe Premiere Pro as I worked on my first video package.

As a sophomore, I tried my hardest to volunteer for every sports and news telecast even though I only had to be there for the entertainment show. Through doing this, I formed the relationships that I was longing for during my messy first year of college.

During my junior year, I became the Executive Entertainment Producer and worked closely with my assistant producers, Grace Lambertsen and Caroline Bennett, to push the boundaries of what Marquette Lately was the year prior.

My senior year at Marquette Television has been quite the ride. Last December, a handful of colleagues decided to leave – one by one – until it was just myself and my friend, Kristin Parisi left as the seniors on MUTV. We were left to pick up the pieces of an organization that had drastically changed in front of our eyes.

Three years later, I am sitting here trying to find the words about how to sum up an experience that has meant so much to me. There have been lots (I mean lots) of ups and downs from my time at The Marquette Wire, but I would not trade it for the world.

The Wire gave me more than I could ever have expected. Who knew that a student media organization could have had such a lasting impact on my college experience.

The Wire gave me direction for my career, brought my creativity back, and gave me some of my greatest friends.

I do not know what I will do next, but I know that I will take all the late-night editing sessions, frantic rehearsals and all the lessons with me forever. But the greatest lesson of all that the Wire taught me was that you will always find your home when you least expect it.

This story was written by Patrick Curran. She can be reached at [email protected].