While some of my fellow fourth-year Cavalier Daily staffers may use their parting words to share what they learned on the job at the paper, I would instead like to reflect on the forces that brought me to the basement of Newcomb Hall in the first place.
If you are unfamiliar with the concept of chaotic systems, it may unsettle you at first. It is the idea that we all live in deterministic systems that are dependent on, and highly sensitive to, initial conditions. In other words, the tiniest changes to our lives can ripple outward and produce dramatically different outcomes over time. But as chaotic as these “ripple effects” may seem, they are not random at all. Chaos theory tells us that chaotic systems are just that — systems — operated by underlying order and structure, shaped by previous interactions and decisions.
Now, you may be thinking, “What is a retired life editor doing, talking about mathematical theory?” I assure you, it connects — somehow — to my print night bakes and student life features.
When I arrived at the University, the last thing I thought I would do was join the student newspaper. I had it in my head that journalism was fast-paced, stressful and austere — a poor fit for someone like me, a daydreamer and an unhurried writer. So, when I weaved through the tabling clubs on Peabody Lawn my first week of school, collecting flyers and signing up for mailing lists, I did not so much as glance at The Cavalier Daily’s booth.
But as the year went by, little seemed to click. I walked out of countless CIO interest meetings feeling uninspired, and I recurrently opened my inbox to find that I had been, yet again, rejected from another club. In the wake of these setbacks, I found myself — to my surprise — browsing The Cavalier Daily’s recruitment website. Maybe, just maybe, I could find a place for myself there, putting pen to paper about my interests in health and culture.
The following fall, I beelined to The Cavalier Daily’s activity fair table and struck up a conversation with the only unoccupied member of the staff. Her name was Miriella Jiffar, and, as it turned out, she was a life editor. It was this fortuitous encounter that convinced me to apply to, and later join, the Life desk. And three months after that, it was Miriella’s decision to leave her editing post that allowed me to fill a vacancy on the newspaper’s Junior Board.
I could never have predicted I would end up an editor for The Cavalier Daily. Yet, every choice and interaction within this chaotic system, timed just right — from the club recruitment chairs who turned me down, to the sports editor at the activity fair who turned away so I could talk to Miriella — willed it to be so.
And how grateful I am that this intricate web of chance led me to The Cavalier Daily. Otherwise, I never perhaps would have been privy to the sidesplitting quips of Dana Douglas and Thomas Baxter. I never would have spent print nights bathed in the gabs and giggles of Mia Tan and Delores Cyrus. I never would have encountered the warm souls of Grace Traxler and Leila Mohajer, nor the fiery passion of Xander Tilock. I never would have bonded with Blaine Hutchens over live edits, overheard-in-the-office notes and all-too-many Slack messages. I never would have connected with Evelyn Lewis, who became one of my dearest Batten School friends. And I never would have met my fiercest supporter and most trusted confidant, Finn Trainer.
I never could have predicted that I would be steeped in this student journalist community. And yet, these people, and this place, constitute my fondest college memories and have shaped me into the woman I am today.
Many soon-to-be graduates may be afraid that whatever steps they take next — the job offers they accept, the relationships they hold onto or the cities they move to — will irrevocably set the course of the rest of their lives. According to chaos theory, that may be true. But I do not think it is something to fear. As my journey to The Cavalier Daily taught me, the initial conditions do not have to be perfect for things to work out. Even the toughest rejections, the most last-ditch ideas and the briefest conversations can set off meaningful paths. You may not know it at the time, but every moment of life, good or bad, may slowly but systematically be leading you to something greater.
So, as I walk the Lawn and into this new chapter of young adulthood, I trust that my life journey will bring me to more good people and good places, even if I do not yet know who they are or where they will be. Because one grand, flawless decision alone will not define my future — it will be a series of small, impossible-to-predict moments that will make order out of this topsy-turvy, one-of-a-kind, precious life.
Thank you, The Cavalier Daily, for giving me faith in the chaos.
Kate Johnson was a life editor for the 135th and 136th terms and a food writer for part of the 134th and 137th terms of The Cavalier Daily.
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