You’re not lost. You’re here.

Leeanne graduated in 2017 and her whirlwind college years have translated into whirlwind post-graduate years. Trading the crisp mountain air for tropical humidity, she lives fulltime in Haiti, where she had worked part time while in college. While on breaks from school, Leeanne took the red eye flights back and forth between her United States home and a children’s home where she helped kids get support and job training in the tumultuous political and economic environment of Haiti. Almost eleven years later, she works full-time at the same children’s home. Other than living and caring for nine local girls, Leanne is in the process of opening a coffee shop whose profit will fund the necessary college tuitions and will provide these teenagers with job training they would otherwise lack.

Yet, she is not only an overseas philanthropist, teacher, and caregiver; Leanne has been an officer in the Army Reserves for three years after joining the ROTC program at the Mount. While this career mostly involves only monthly drills back in the United States, Leanne found herself mobilized and deployed to Afghanistan for a year, which fits the spontaneous whirlwind style of how she lives her life.

If you think this is the most remarkable thing about Leanne, you’d be wrong. Her story and career are, itself, exciting and inspiring. But her personality and the energy she brings to a room are the first things you notice. In the one Zoom call we had together, I knew I had talked to someone who truly exemplifies the word authentic. It was in the way she nonchalantly added that she was opening a coffee shop in a country that doesn’t really drink coffee to help support a child’s future, as if every recent college graduate was doing it. Our interview was interrupted momentarily by one of the girls from the children’s home that lives with her; I couldn’t see the girl, but in the way that Leanne’s eyes lit up while talking to her, there was pride, admiration, and overall happiness. She described herself as someone who "objectively experiences life," which, according to Leanne, involves passion and travel. There is no doubt in my mind that Leanne is exactly where she needs to be.

Like Leanne, I didn’t know I needed FYATM until it found me. Similarly, I didn’t know I needed Leanne until she found me. Amid giving me personal anecdotes to entertain the readers of this article, she sprinkled in tidbits of advice that I needed as a sophomore in college. While I could never do her wisdom justice, I’ll try to sum it up for you here. I think they apply to everyone, whether you’re a writer, student, or something uniquely your own.

• Don’t follow conventions in career or in your writing. You don’t have to work a 9-5 job just because you think you’re supposed.
• Never reread your articles. The first approach is the most genuine.
• College is amazing. You’re free and learning and you have friends and passion. But the world is so much bigger than college. Don’t limit yourself to college experiences. You could be at the best school in the world and it’s still not the world.
• Don’t shelter yourself from what’s possible. Know that you’re capable of more.
• Journalism is not dead. It’s more important than ever.
• It is possible to live an unconventional life.

Since the purpose of our meeting was for me to get to know her, Leanne didn’t know much about me, so she couldn’t have known how badly I needed to hear that advice. As a sophomore, the deadline to declare a major and narrow down a career field draws closer. I have always been a writer, but the age-old warning of the lack of financial stability has made me hesitant to declare as an English major. In short, I’m scared—no, terrified. I cannot stay in Emmitsburg forever, in this little cave I have built around myself with friends and classes and clubs. There is a life out there waiting for me. The world is out there waiting for me. The future is scary because it’s unknown, but the fact that it’s unknown means that I have the power to change it. Leanne comes off as someone who isn’t scared of anything, the type of person who would get on a spontaneous flight to Haiti at seventeen and come face to face with her ideal career. But I know calling Leanne fearless is probably not correct; she is scared like everyone else, but she goes towards it not away from it. Perhaps, that is the best advice she gifted me.

It is a unique role that Leanne and I have had as writers, and a unique role you have as readers. Every month, you get to read about our ups and downs and our experiences in Emmitsburg. You will see us mature and grow, hopefully, over the course of these four years. College is often said to be the fastest four years of your life and before I know it, I will be graduating and no longer writing for this paper. Memories from late night study sessions will fade, but I can always turn to these pages to remember the type of person I was and who I was becoming. Leanne summed up the greatest lesson FYATM gives its writers in her farewell article as she was graduating: "Write it down, read it later."