I didn’t join the Nass until relatively recently, already a few weeks into the second semester of my freshman year. My friend Michael, a junior and a senior editor, had attempted to persuade me all first semester to get on board, which I took as a compliment because that meant he thought my writing was good enough to deserve an audience. I didn’t realize at first why I was so reticent, but at the beginning of the semester I had an idea for a piece about conversations between friends who disagree, something that I was just itching to write because I suspected I had something to say. I pitched it at a meeting, received helpful encouragement, and proceeded to write the piece.

When it was published a few weeks ago, I was excited. I felt for the first time in my life that I was a real writer, because I could see my own name and read my own words in print. The truly best part, however, was when I got a text from a classmate of mine that afternoon. “Hey man,” he wrote, “I read the piece you wrote in The Nassau Weekly. I really liked it and it really opened up my eyes to a different way of seeing things. Just wanted to say congrats on writing such a good article.”

I had made a positive impact on someone else; I had connected through my words to another mind, another person. This, to me, is true success.