I think everyone does their best thinking at two different times: when they are taking a shower or when they are taking a dump. While some people choose to waste this valuable time singing pop songs that nobody will remember next week or playing Candy Crush, I argue that some of the greatest strokes of genius come to us on the toilet.
Don’t you ever wonder if the person who invented Velcro, or Post-It Notes or Vino2Go Wine Sippy Cups ever thought up these ideas while on the toilet? I certainly do.
It was during one of these intimate thinking moments, when I happened to be shampooing my hair (Thank you TRESemmé Split End Remedy) that I realized I could write for The Rocket.
My internal dialogue went something like this, “Oh, this new shampoo smells nice, I wonder if it is what that girl that sits in front of me in class uses? Her hair always smells nice. But it also long and big and sometimes gets on my desk when I’m trying to do things, which is annoying. Actually, I hope this isn’t the same shampoo. Speaking of class, I should probably go get some work done in the Mac Lab in ECB. I also forgot to pick up The Rocket on Friday so I will grab one of those. I like to write, I wonder if only journalism majors write for The Rocket? Surely not, maybe I’ll stop by the office and ask when I get there and see if they are looking for writers.” I’m just going to stop the dialogue there because I’m sure I had a 20-minute-long conversation with myself after that, which I frequently do. (Most of the time, these aren’t aloud, but if I’m distracted they easily could be.)
Anyway, the point to the shampooing story is this, when I got to ECB later I did stop in the office and talked to the then News Editor, and I started contributing to the news section right away. Seeing my name in print on the front page for the first time gave me butterflies. Like the good kind. Somewhere in between eating-mint-chocolate-icecream butterflies and kissing-someone-for-the-first-time butterflies. Or maybe different butterflies altogether, BUT I WAS EXCITED, OKAY? This was in Fall 2011, and I was a sophomore.
Today, as a senior who is graduating in a little over a week, the time seems to have flown by. I still do my best thinking in the bathroom, and I have even been hauling that ugly black dress I’m supposed to wear next Saturday into the bathroom with me when I shower to try to steam the wrinkles out of it.
As the Editor-in-Chief of The Rocket, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. This academic year, The Rocket has won 47 awards and I couldn’t be more proud of the staff for all the hard work they have put in over the year. We are a great big, nontraditional (and at times dysfunctional) family with two adopted monkeys who live on our office couch. The Rocket has been so much more than a “resume builder” for me. I’ve learned many life lessons, made new friends and been pushed outside my comfort zone to handle certain situations more than I’ll ever care to admit, but it all made me grow into the person I am today.
When I’m walking across the stage next weekend, I know I’ll feel prepared for my future with my experiences at The Rocket to thank, I also know I will have some kind of butterflies that I probably can’t describe appropriately, I know I will be having a conversation with myself in my head and probably miss when my name is called, and I know I will be wondering where my next bathroom will be. Great minds need great bathrooms.
