Launching too soon

McKenna Snow
Class of 2024

(4/2022) Workplaces can be a place of tightening communities or weakening them, both with fellow employees and with consumers. The Emmitsburg News-Journal workplace for the columnists of "Four Years at the Mount" is less a brick-and-mortar office than it is a meeting in the Mount’s library to discuss upcoming editions and updates. Yet, I am so thankful that I get to say I have a tight community with our little staff, and especially with my friendship with the Class of 2023 writer, Emmy Jansen. I met her at a class we were both in during the fall of my freshman year. She always dressed really cute and sounded smart when she gave answers to Dr. Turner’s questions. She was one of the first girls in any of my classes to give me her number so we could chat about the class.

I saw her around sometimes when my other friends got together. We’d end up at the same movie nights, and, to my surprise, the same Emmitsburg News-Journal meetings. I saw her at the Latin Mass with a lovely veil on, and in the line for Dunkin’ Donuts coffee after Sunday Mass.

We always had pleasant exchanges and fun conversations, but our schedules never lined up well enough to see each other consistently or regularly. Yet, we found ways of still connecting and bonding when we could, deepening the friendship little by little.

The fall of 2021 offered more frequent encounters. As RAs, we went on rounds together, making memories walking through Terrace and just chatting like old friends. We are very good at the chatting thing, and I love it. The fall afforded us many more opportunities to hang out, to come over to each other’s rooms for late-night chats, for random dinner-meet ups, and each time, we became better friends.

Getting to know Emmy has been one of my favorite aspects of the Emmitsburg News-Journal writing experience. She’s my junior editor, who comments on my articles, gives me insight and criticism, and is someone I can really connect with to talk about the content. Our shared experiences as RAs helps deepen our similarities that we can relate to. As C. S. Lewis said, "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one!’" Emmy and I have had many moments like this, sometimes it’s almost comical.

My friendship with Emmy is reflective of how circumstances may very well help begin a friendship, but that it certainly doesn’t stop there. Sure, we enjoy movie nights together and sit by each other in RA staff meetings, and maybe I do text her slightly too much about the latest Emmitsburg News-Journal prompt and my writer’s block. But what I reserve from this article is what is reserved for friendships grown over a long period of time, in the little moments throughout the semester: moments of disagreement, confiding in one another over a struggle with friends, sincere times of bonding over a new joy in life. Seeing the other person sitting across from you at lunch and realizing they have so much more going on in their lives than their professional encounters let on. Realizing that you want to take care of them, and that you feel special to be the person sitting across from them at the table. The other person wants to share a part of their story with me? How blessed am I!

And the longer I’m around Emmy, as I am very often this semester, the better I get to know and see her. I see her personality in her love of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, and in her love of essential oils that she keeps on hand for whatever need may arise. Her personality comes out in the way that she cares for her friends and listens intently when they share a struggle with her. Emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual health—all important and priority for Emmy. This is especially reflective in her efforts in the RA field; she is incredibly attentive to her residents when they need support. She is incredibly smart, quick, thoughtful, and empathetic; she is a strong leader (SGA President, for one) and always down to chat about fashion, femininity, and current events. I love our conversations because they give us the opportunity to build each other up, sometimes through honest criticism, and often through uplifting and encouraging advice.

There weren’t enough opportunities I’ve had with Emmy to classify our friendship as simply existing by proximity; it took effort behind the scenes to reach out, schedule a lunch or dinner, invite to a quick Dunkin’ trip, send a text just checking in because it’s been a while since one has seen the other around. And to me, that’s what friendship looks like: even quick texts that say, "thinking of you!" over the summer and a late-night "can I come over, I need a friend" and a chat over Monday’s lunch to catch up about the weekend. Circumstances don’t always afford easy means of seeing the other person to keep up the relationship, but putting in effort, charity, patience, humor, joy… that’s what makes the friendship solid.

Emmy is graduating early, so she won’t be here next year. One stage of our friendship is slowly coming to a close, but it is about to enter a new one: she’ll be moving several hours away, and I’ll be here at the Mount in the fall. I am sincerely going to miss her fun, strong, energetic personality on campus. But I don’t fear that our friendship is coming to an end. I have seen now through these past two years that the long-lasting friendships are the ones that put in the effort even when the circumstances work against you. There are so many things that keep friendships strong regardless of circumstance. The many memories we’ve made at the Mount I will keep closely and joyfully with me, and I am excited to make new ones with her in the fall; maybe it’ll look like a road trip to see each other, or phone calls once a week to keep in touch, or both. Who’s to say? Life is an adventure, and I am thankful for Emmy as a friend who’s been dancing with me through it.