A Fond Farewell to Philbrook

Emma is saying farewell this week. Our Student Life columnist, Emma Philbrook, plans to keep in touch with us, perhaps submitting a column on a monthly basis, but it just won't be the same. While we're pleased to see her set forth on her college adventure, it's hard to say good-bye to someone who has become such a familiar face on the pages of The Times.

As a matter of fact, Emma has been here longer than the rest of us. Her first published column, featuring gift-giving tips, was printed on Nov. 29, 2012. This week she submitted her 143rd column, having never missed a week.

I almost hesitate to mention Emma's popularity. More than once I've heard people say, "Emma's column is the first thing I read." Or even, "Emma's column is the only thing I read," (a comment that really should be reserved for Emma, directly, since the rest of us do have feelings, too. Just sayin').

What can't be denied is that both The Times and our readers will miss Emma greatly. As we say good-bye, it seems like the perfect opportunity to learn what the experience of writing a teen column for three years was like, from Emma's perspective.

Dena: How did you end up writing for The Times?

Emma: It's a pretty long story, but I'll give you the short version: I was president of the Leo's Club my sophomore year, and part of my job was to go to a meeting of the Lions Club to help them coordinate a joint food drive. My summer job had just ended and I was looking for something else to do. I saw[former Times publisher] Imbert Matthee there and thought it would be cool if I could get an internship at the Times, so I talked to him. He put me in touch with Jillian Beaudry, who was his editor at the time, and she said I could write a column.

Dena: Do you recall what your first article was and how you came up with the idea?

Emma: My first column was about how happy I was to get a column. It was a huge deal for me. However, Ms. Beaudry wanted a column that read more like an article - something of an informative nature written in the third person. So the first column that got published was a list of gift-giving tips. In honor of that start, I wrote a gift-giving tip column on Thanksgiving weekend both years afterwards, only those were funnier.

Dena: How have your columns evolved over the three years you've written for us?

Emma: When I first started, like I mentioned, my columns were much less personal. It was really hard for me to write that way, because I was trying to entertain people, and it's hard to entertain people when you don't have that connection. I reverted to the format I use today within my first four or five columns. Of course, by that time, they had already started printing me and they couldn't just stop, so I got away with the switch in format. Also, I like to think I've gotten funnier over the years, but it's anyone's guess whether I actually have.

Dena: Did writing become easier or harder over time?

Emma: After a while, you get into a rhythm. Of course, finding new subject matter is always a challenge, but that's the wonderful thing about life - it just keeps throwing you inspiration.

Dena: What was the hardest thing about writing for the paper?

Emma: With a wide audience comes the need to respect that audience. What I think is a funny, innocent joke might be horribly offensive to a reader, and in a small town, that reader is very likely to be somebody you know and would never, ever offend on purpose. You have to be pretty careful if you want to write something that everyone can enjoy.

Dena: What was the easiest or most enjoyable part?

Emma: Sharing my sense of humor with the Touchet Valley. It's a great feeling to make people laugh. My sophomore year I wrote a column about not going to Prom, and I remember that everybody was telling me how funny it was and how hard they were laughing when they were reading it. It was awesome.

Dena: Do you see writing in your future, and if so, in what forms?

Emma: Of course I'm going to keep writing, just like I'm going to keep breathing and drinking water. I have to do it. It's part of my biology. I can't wait to start writing papers for my classes at Whitman, and I'm working on a short story that I hope to get published in Whitman's annual literary magazine. I'm also picking away at writing a science fiction novel - that should be interesting. In the more immediate future, I intend to check in with the readers of The Times periodically - every month or so if it works out.

Dena: Tell us a bit about your plans for the coming year.

Emma: I'll be attending Whitman this fall. I don't have a major yet, but I'll be entering their pre-law advising program. I can't wait to meet my roommate in person - she's a writer, too, and we have a mile-long string of e-mails back and forth talking about our lives, our hopes, our dreams, beluga whales, disparity in international education systems, and wisdom-tooth removal. I'm bracing myself for all kinds of crazy-hard assignments and intense studying, but I think that'll be fun. I love making my brain earn its keep.

In the course of our interview I was thrilled to learn that Emma still had a copy of her very first column, about how happy she was to be writing for The Times, which was never published. We are pleased to share it with our readers today.

Emma's First Column, Published for the First Time

I walked through the doors of Waitsburg High School last Friday morning with my shoulders back and my head in the clouds.

As I opened my locker, my Human Development textbook fell out and clonked me on the head. I barely noticed.

Pulling out my supplies for first period, which is Band, I strutted in a similar manner to the band room. With a flourish, I whipped a chair off of a stack and set it primly on the ground in the approximate location of the flute section.

"What's with you?" asked the band director.

"Well, I talked to the editor of The Times and she's giving me a column to write!"

"Neat! I'm glad. I've noticed that they need a bit more material to fill up that new, bigger edition. This might cut a few full-page advertisements down to size."

Huh.

Coming down from Cloud Nine only to take my final in second period, I strode confidently into English, my third-period class.

"Mrs. Leid," I announced to my teacher, "The Times is having me do a column!"

"Oh, you'll be great at that!" she enthused "Yeah! Right up your alley!"

A reality check, in the form of a ten-page test on Elie Weisel's Night, was delivered shortly afterward.

At lunch, I told my friend Cat the good news, who said that it was 'nice' that I was writing for The Times. Another friend, Logan, said something similar. In fact, most of the kids I talked to took it in stride.

With, naturally, the exception of my little brother:

"Oh great. Way to ruin a perfectly good newspaper, you twerp."

I love you too, Chris.

My mother, predictably, was excited. So were my maternal grandparents. And I'm sure my father's side of the family will be thrilled as soon as I tell them. It's all a question of how to let them know.

Maybe I'll send them all a clipping of the piece. Or a link to it on the paper's website. Or maybe I'll stay mum until one of them comes up to visit, leafs through a copy of The Times, and sees my name followed by a rather lengthy piece of print, with someone on hand to take a picture of the reaction.

In fact, I was planning to simply leave today's Times open on the kitchen table and wait for my mother to find out about the column that way. It almost worked, too. But I only got about halfway through typing the piece you're reading now before she wandered into the computer room and asked what I was doing.

"Umm...it's an essay, Mom. For English. About...umm...General Custer."

"Really. What does that have to do with your Human Development textbook falling on your head?"

So I came clean. I told her, in explicit detail, about my trip to The Times' office for an interview about a certain food drive. How they had my name on file because I'd requested an internship. How the editor had given me her e-mail address and a due date – and a column – as well as six Starbursts and three mini Twixes, possibly the only payment I'll ever receive for this job.

Well, that and the look on my extended family's faces when a well-placed copy of the Times makes an appearance on Thanksgiving.