Let’s rewind the clocks 21 months. I was in the Roaring Fork Valley between the third and fourth semesters of my graduate studies, which I was pursuing via a small international university in southwestern Germany. In my free time, I was writing — not a new habit — but I was wondering if it was a practice in delusion. I had been submitting essays and opinion pieces to magazines and newspapers for a year, and getting nowhere.
Then, a chance introduction. A family friend got a short draft of mine in front of Sopris Sun Contributing Editor James Steindler. He liked it. He shared it with Editor-in-Chief Raleigh Burleigh. They printed it as a guest contribution in early April of 2024. The pair generously invited me to join weekly freelancer meetings. Two weeks later, I got lucky again when the Aspen Daily News agreed to publish a salty guest column about traffic in the Valley.
After a full year of futility, the chances felt dizzying. In May, back in Germany, I followed through on The Sun’s invitation to freelance. I signed up for a reporting piece that sounded interesting, and I successfully pitched a column series. The team agreed to let me write about experiential education, about its U.S. history and its many forms in the Roaring Fork Valley.
It is simply accurate to state that this was life-changing. While higher education is significantly more affordable in most of the European Union than in our own country, I’d struggled to find work during my studies in Germany. My language skills were not at tax or legal form-level fluency. Writing a few pieces a month for The Sun helped cover my apartment rent while expanding my small and dusty writing resume.
I’ll be honest: I stumbled into journalism. While my bachelor’s degree was in creative writing and I spent several semesters as a proofreader and copy editor for my college paper, the film depictions of a newsroom didn’t call to me. I worked many other professions in the decade between undergrad and grad school, including a four-year stint as a research editor. Somehow, it didn’t occur to me that part-time, one-to-three contributions a week to newspapers was an option. That is, until altruistic and patient people opened that door right in front of me.
Instinctive. That’s the word for how the start of my freelancing career felt. I went from a single guest column in April to two published pieces in June to a whopping seven for the month of July. The weekly meetings became the most consistent part of my life during a busy summer of thesis research. I learned as I went, finagling how to conduct interviews across an eight-hour time zone difference.
By last autumn, I started to settle into designated beats. My growing stack of Sun bylines got me a regular spot in the Daily News columnist rotation. My lifelong writing dreams felt a new kind of tangible, more concrete than the 2022 publication of my book “Colorado Alpine Trail Runs,” which I’d always known was a moment of rare serendipity. When winter brought me back to the Valley, I felt brave. I joined the Aspen Writers Network. I started inquiring about press passes to ticketed community events I wanted to cover.
Reporting for The Sun has allowed me to learn about the regular functions and processes of some of this valley’s institutions and public services. I’ve learned about wildfire science and the passionate advocacy of countless experiential education programs. I have had the surreal privilege of interviewing ski mountaineering legend Lou Dawson and spiritualist Marianne Williamson.
The transformation of last year built my confidence. I applied for Aspen Summer Words — the worst they could say was “no.” To my thrill and shock, I got a different answer. This June, I met a cohort of wonderfully creative and sensitive people and the tour de force teaching of punk writer Joshua Mohr.
The weekly practice of crafting my reporting contributions for The Sun and my now-weekly columns in the Daily News tunes my instrument for creative drafting, too. I’ve been steadily revising a long-form project and iterating lyrical and personal essays in addition to the articles I’m privileged to write. This month, I had a dream come true: a memoir essay published in a literary magazine, the University of Montana’s winter issue of Camas, which celebrates American West art and expression.
The Sopris Sun has given me the immeasurable gift of building a writing career out of almost nothing. This team of people is passionate about writing for and about the diverse community in our region’s towns and cities. They support and encourage one another and shine light on businesses and people and institutions that deserve independent, thoughtful, regular coverage.
As we reach the end of this year, I hope you’ll consider supporting that work by donating, whether a one-time holiday gift or as a new SUNscriber.