Senior farewell – Erika O’Brien

To say that I am nowhere near where I started my freshman year feels like an understatement. I started during COVID; it was crazy because I had never been away from home and it was insane and lonely. I was in contact with the girl that was supposed to be my roommate, then next thing I know she moved out right as college started. 

I was alone, it was crazy and I didn’t know how to go about it. I came here with the idea of becoming a veterinarian, but with everything going on I got very lonely and unmotivated. It felt like a struggle to do anything, that’s when I realized that being a vet wasn’t for me.

So, there I was, I didn’t know what I wanted to do or where to go. I played around with a bunch of different ideas, looked into nursing then changed my major to special education. I changed again after talking to someone in that department and finding out that wasn’t going to fit me too well either. It became harder when I had double knee surgery the summer between my freshman and sophomore year.

Sophomore year was very difficult. I struggled to walk around campus so much after my surgery. Towards the end of the fall semester that year I decided to try something new that always interested me. I changed my major to Civil Engineering. This was probably the hardest thing I ever did and it ended up not lasting very long because trigonometry was not something I could do. During the spring semester of my sophomore year, I took on way too much by changing my major, getting my first on-campus job in Human Resources, and even joined the ROTC program on campus. 

This semester was the only one that all of this lasted for. I realized I am not very good with numbers, my knees would never recover enough to be able to join the military and an everyday desk job would drive me crazy. So I sat there, not sure what to do or where to go… again. Thankfully I had two months to think about it. I talked to my family and my dad said to get a business degree, it was simple and would be good for many different things. So that’s what I did, however I still remained stressed all the time.

When I realized I needed something to help with the stress, I picked up photography after my sister reminded me that not only was I good at it but I also received great joy when I could capture sweet moments. About two weeks before the fall semester of what was supposed to start my junior year, I had changed my major to Business Management, which put me behind a semester, and I started taking photography classes which helped me find a new student position at the athletic department as the student photographer. After this, I was recruited into The Pacer where I met so many amazing people that made me feel so comfortable in my own skin.

This was somewhere I finally felt like I belonged. It felt like I had another family and they supported me in my passion, which I didn’t know I had. When Ms. Tomi recruited me from the athletic department, it became one of the best choices I have ever made.

Now, here I am, in my senior year, and I am the chief photographer, which is crazy! This job helped me find my career and passion, which led me to join University Relations as a student photographer under one of my biggest role models, Nathan Morgan.

This helped me find my dream of starting my own photography business which is something I am going to focus more on after I graduate. Now, I am photographing my last couple of games and watching all my friends do their own things, becoming bigger and better people. The years of struggling finally paid off.

I have a lot of people to thank but I want to start with Nathan Morgan. He’s the reason I am where I am with photography and why I get to do what I love all the time. In a very short time he became a huge part of my life, becoming my mentor and helping me learn so many things with photography and even showing me how to become more patient. 

Jenny Killebrew over in business, she’s been like my rock. Anytime I had an issue or was sad about something, she’d let me just sit and talk and cry in her office until I felt a little bit better. During some of the hardest times I had throughout college, she sat there and listened and gave me advice and helped find answers to questions I didn’t know I had.

I want to thank Andy Kissar, my good friend, for getting me a summer job at the recycling center going into my last semester and being a huge emotional support. Andy has shown me how strong willed I am and how it can be truly beneficial. He has also helped me realize how greatly appreciated I am in ways I never thought possible which helped grow my confidence. 

I also want to thank Ms. Tomi for believing in me and always pushing me and even reminding me to slow down every now and then so that I can make a bigger impact in the long run. I have so many other people to thank, but I want to make sure to thank Bethany for helping me write this, getting my thoughts down when I can’t and for being such a good friend.

Finally, I want to thank Mrs. Rafielle Freeman. She became a huge supporter of mine after the very first time I met her and continued to rave about me. The more I got to know her the more amazing she became! Having such a kind person in my corner is something I couldn’t be more thankful for. 

I had a long and difficult journey but such an amazing journey and everyone deserves to find their home like I did with The Pacer. I wouldn’t change a thing that’s happened to me because if I did then I wouldn’t have made all of the friends and connections that I have these past few years.