By: Sara Stammer
People always say good things will come to those who wait, but I always believed good things will come to those who work hard and go that extra mile. It never made sense to me to sit back and just wait to be handed opportunity, I believe in the “go getter.” I know I am not alone in this, for my high school field hockey team made it part of our theme our senior year “Winners don’t wait for chances, they make them.” With that being said I also worked my hardest to fly under the radar. Confidence in myself admittedly is something I lack subsequently causing my successes to even come to a shock to me.
It was no different this past August when I was accepted into the Shepherd University’s Sigma Tau Delta Literary Conference and Festival. I must have read the email over five times at my dining room table not believing the words before my eyes. There is nothing fancy in:
“Hi Sara,
I just wanted to let you know your paper regarding _White Noise_ has been accepted for the conference! We examined all of your abstracts, but are only able to accept one per person. I have attached the registration form, which is due by 9/24. I’ll also be sending out a packet of information about the conference within the next week. Let me know if you have any questions.
Regards,
Leigh”
I merely took advantage of an email from someone in Sigma Tau Delta here at the College. Hesitant even to submit an abstract, I emailed that said person questioning whether I should even take the time to apply. Of course he told me to go for it, that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Applying at the end of my freshman year I was convinced the conference would not think twice about some nineteen year old girl from TCNJ with little to no college experience.
Somehow in my 119 word abstract I was able to convince a panel that I have something to say and need to be heard because on October 6, 2012 I will be in West Virginia presenting a paper to a room full of other people deemed presenters by the same panel that chose me. I will be presenting. These 119 words convinced a panel, are you convinced?
“In his analysis, “Romanticism and the Postmodern Novel: Three Scenes from Don DeLillo’s White Noise,” Lou F. Caton gives readers a respectable analysis of the first six chapters of the novel but fails to delve any deeper subsequently leaving his analysis inadequate and incomplete. Though the three examples Caton gives to support his argument are vital, he does not even attempt to connect television, disasters, or the supermarkets to his point, all of which are imperative to the story as a whole. Critiquing Caton’s analysis and elaborating on his ideas, this essay uses both DeLillo’s White Noise and Caton’s “Romanticism and the Postmodern Novel: Three Scenes from Don DeLillo’s White Noise” to take a deeper look at the novel.”
Having the chance to do something like this was a goal of mine for a while but a goal nonetheless I thought I would only be able to achieve during my senior year if I really worked my hardest for it. This experience means the world to me, and has been ever so humbling.
The same can be said to being inducted into the society here at the College next month as well. Sigma Tau Delta has changed me as a person and has definitely added substance to my sophomore year and the year has barely even started. Moral of the story is I need to find the confidence in myself and continue to set out in the direction of my dreams (and you should too!). I was not born inferior to anyone, have proven to myself time and time again I can do anything I set my mind to. Sophomore year is going to be used as another tool in my arsenal to get where I want to go.
Sara Ashley Stammer is an English and Women and Gender Studies Double Major with a minor in Criminology. She is a north Jersey native and currently one of the Sophomore Representatives on the SFB as well as both a member of WILL and Sigma Tau Delta. She enjoys spending her off time traveling and trying new things.
The Sophomore Year Experience at TCNJ 