December 14, 2023 | PERSPECTIVES | By Michael Braithwaite
Isabella, an outgoing Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Catalyst, reflects on her childhood, the role of writing in her life and the joys of student journalism.
“I’m from Berkeley, California, which is my favorite place in the entire world. I feel like anybody who knows me at Colorado College knows that every day, I somehow bring Berkeley into most of my conversations.
I love Berkeley for so many reasons. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. But I think that the culture of Berkeley is what really makes it stand out to me. You’ll see the funniest-looking people doing the weirdest things, and there’s no place like it. It also is incredibly diverse, and I feel like growing up I got to encounter so many different people from all over the world, just in my community.
Growing up, I spent a lot of time outside. My dad especially is really into camping and skiing, and some of my favorite memories growing up were the weekends when my brother and I would go camping with him. And it would be so funny, because his version of camping is so different than the typical CC fancy-gear-type of camping. Because what he would do would be to put everything in our house into his car, and it’d be for just one night and it was hilarious. We would go to the same campground every time and the campsite would always be so cluttered. We
looked like crazy hoarder people because we would just have so much stuff.
I also grew up playing a lot of soccer. My mom is an immigrant from Argentina, and soccer is a huge part of her identity. I stopped playing, but still just a big part of our life was watching soccer and listening to music – the music part from my dad and the soccer part from my mom. My mom is very much like my brother in terms of energy and volume. She goes crazy, like she’ll be screaming when World Cup games are going on. She just loves being around other people. She always yells ‘Vamos!’ even when it’s not necessarily appropriate. When I was a kid playing rec soccer, she would be screaming as if it was a World Cup final. The other parents were all like ‘What the f*ck,’ but it was just normal to me.
My brother Eric is one of the funniest people I know. His normal speaking volume is five times louder than anybody else’s. He fills up any space that he’s in, but just with pure joy. From my parents, we gained a lot of interest in soccer and music, and he played college soccer. And then also, he’s an incredible
musician and kind of like the perfect combination of my parents’ passions – just a really talented human. I wasn’t as gifted with his musical abilities or athleticism, so that was hard. But he didn’t make it an issue. He’s the most humble person and honestly, he got really shy. Everybody was aware of his talent, but he didn’t make a big deal out of it and made sure that I got my spotlight too, which was nice.
I don’t know if it was to make me feel better, but my mom would always compliment my writing growing up. Like it would bring her to tears. She would really just hone in on the fact that it was a talent I had. It was nice to feel like I had that. I did a lot of creative writing growing up just on my own. Most of it I never shared with anybody, but it brought me joy to make up stories.
So, I always was told that I was good at writing and when I started at Berkeley High, I decided to apply for their student newspaper. And their student newspaper has won national awards: it’s incredibly impressive. Growing up in Berkeley, I had always heard about it, too. I did the application and I got in. And I was so happy because it was a pretty competitive paper at a school with 3,600 kids. It was one of those things that everybody wanted to be a part of because it had this reputation of being a very impressive club with really cool people.
In my application process to CC, the student newspaper played a big part. Just the fact that they had one felt really good and I was like, ‘this is going to be my thing in college too.’ As soon as I decided to go to CC, I started looking at the publication. During the first week, if not orientation, I applied. It felt really good to be doing something that was a big part of my high school experience and bring that to college. It felt very familiar to me, which felt really good.
At first, I actually didn’t want to apply to be Co-Editor-In-Chief. I felt like I wasn’t ready for the job. I wanted to do another year as a Section Editor before applying, and I felt like I wasn’t qualified. I felt very nervous about it. And when I first knew that the spot would be open, it was not my first instinct to be like, ‘oh, I want that.’
But from when I first heard about it to when I actually applied, over that month, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. I talked to my mom and friends and peers about it and I met with Emma and Zeke about it, and I realized this is something that I could actually do. I felt like it would be really cool to have this experience, so I think I definitely had to convince myself that I was worthy of the job. And then once I was like, ‘screw it. Let’s just do it,’ I got really excited about it and made the decision to apply.
Student journalism has given me so much since I was a sophomore in high school. It has really helped me with my writing skills, with meeting deadlines, with having that sense of responsibility and the importance of having your ears perked up and listening to what’s happening and knowing, like, if I find out this information, I have the power to do something about it. And I feel as a student, our chances to actually make things change are so limited, especially being at an institution like CC. But being a student journalist, that completely changes.
The burnout is real. In the beginning when I had a lot more energy in the position, I started coming up with lists of things that I wanted to explore and that I wanted to write stories about, and it felt like it was kind of the cure to my anger and frustration about the way things are. I was like, ‘oh, that’s okay because I can talk to these people and write about it, and hopefully something incredible can come out of it.’
I think with The Catalyst specifically, the biggest thing I’ve gotten out of it over this past year has been time management. Being on the Block Plan on top of working a different job to actually make money, some weeks are definitely harder than others depending on what’s going on. It’s been a lot and I’ve had to sacrifice a lot of time with friends, or time with Netflix or time with whatever for The Catalyst. And I’ve chosen to do that, I’m happy to do that, but it’s definitely taught me a lot about what my abilities are, how much I realistically can do and how to advocate for myself. I’m grateful for all that experience. But I also feel very ready to have more free time moving forward.
Although I don’t plan on pursuing a job or a career in the journalism industry, I think writing is a powerful tool in any capacity. And, I feel like this job has given me so much practice, not just with writing, but with people skills and management and communication and all those things.
The big takeaway that I have from my time is that all the skills that I’ve honed over this past year can be applied to whatever else I choose to do. I know that my time at The Catalyst and the skills that I’ve learned will stay with me for a very long time.”