Well, this is it. This is my final article for the Odyssey. I joined this organization a little over a year ago, eager to share my opinions. But now it is time to move on.

I have decided to use this final article to update people on my life. Over the summer I was interning with Metro Arts Alliance, but I have since left that organization to pursue things that are more in my field.

I am currently working with a publishing company run by my favorite professor to publish a book about fifteen different religious communities in Des Moines. From helping religion students research in the spring to editing their work in the summer, and now finally figuring out the publishing of the book in the fall, this project has proven to be a project that I really enjoy. The group of people I’m working with, and the product we will have in May, makes everything I’ve done for this project worth it.

I also recently got an internship with Des Moines Urban Experience, Des Moines’s only African American magazine. I will start working with them over the spring semester, editing stories and even writing some. I’ve already had a couple meetings with them, and I’m eager to help them recreate their image.

As if I didn’t have enough on my plate along with those things and my schoolwork, I have been working with a man who has Cerebral Pals. My favorite professor, Carol Spaulding-Kruse got me in contact with a man named Zac who is writing Monnie’s story. Monnie is a 50-year-old African American man who has CP and is nonverbal. I love getting to work with Monnie to make his story the best it can be. Working with Monnie can often be a challenge since he can’t tell us what he wants for the book. He communicates using eye movement, shaking his head, and he sometimes is able to use a talking computer, although it never seems to work. I am able to understand Monnie. We have a special connection because we understand what the other person has gone through since we share the same disability. I have often “cracked the code” on something Monnie has been trying to communicate to Zac and his other staff. Without me, I don’t think Monnie’s story would be told in the same way, and we are able to get closer to what he wants every day. I’m so lucky to have gotten to meet Monnie, he truly is a wonderful man.

I definitely have my hands full with all my extracurricular activities, but I have also learned something about myself. I’ve learned that I enjoy getting the chance to tell others’ stories. I sometimes feel as though I should just quit school because I’m already doing the type of things I want to do later in life. I’ve gotten a jump-start, and sometimes school feels pointless since I’ve gotten these opportunities.

Anyways, I just wanted to give people an update. Hopefully I will be able to continue my adventures as a writer and editor. Please continue to follow my journey as I pursue my life goals. Thank you for taking the time to read this article and all my other articles before it.