SIGNING OFF AS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Sadly signing off as editor-in-chief

Though my time as EIC was shorter than most, I still enjoyed it immensely Ollie Fisher The Communicator

I grew up a gifted kid.

My friend group consists of former gifted kids, too. Something about the shared struggle of having that weight on our shoulders drew us together, a solidarity of having been put into gifted classes that separated us from the broader group of our peers, forced to socialize with other “like-minded” individuals.

However, putting a bunch of nerdy, introverted kids into a singular group doesn’t tend to foster friendships, as most of them, including myself, were stuck in our own worlds and studies.

The nagging feeling of being somehow outside of normalcy continued to root its way deeper into how I interacted with both my classmates and family, persisting well into high school.

I had very few friends or acquaintances and didn’t have time for extracurriculars, since I was so focused on getting good grades. I had inevitably tied my self-worth to my excellence in school, as being the oldest child tended to force me to do everything I could to please my parents. This isolation was further exacerbated by the fact that I lived in Spokane and was commuting over an hour each day.

Spending most of my time at home had some perks, however, as it allowed me to explore LGBTQ+ terminology and identities along with my few friends, who were also going through similar revelations as I was at the time.

After a little over six years of research, I eventually discovered that one explanation for my feelings of otherness was due to gender dysphoria, the intense discomfort that results when your body is not congruous with your gender identity.

I came out to my mother, sister and brother as nonbinary the summer before junior year of high school and began to use the neu

Courtesy of Lindsey Treffry | The Communicator Left to right: Kyra Smith, Allison Manion, Katelynn Cooke, Ollie Fisher, Lindsey Treffry. One of the best times I had as part of The Communicator staff was being able to go to the College Media Association convention with my winter quarter staff.

tral, singular pronouns, “they, them, theirs, and themselves.”

That summer was spent trying different names and fashion choices with my family. I sought comfort in masculine honorifics and dress wear as a way to firmly establish myself as anything but feminine.

However, this revelation provided little comfort for my feelings of loneliness within school. When I officially came out to my school and urged my teachers and classmates to use my chosen name, I was further isolated by those who didn’t, or sometimes outright refused to, understand me.

This caused me to throw myself further into my schoolwork and my creative passions. Writing has always been a constant in my life.

I participated and placed in my elementary school’s writing competition the three years that it ran, and I took as many English classes in high school as I could, not only because of my interest in the subject

SIGNING OFF Continued on page 9

Courtesy of Lindsey Treffry | The Communicator Another picture from the New York trip, again featuring winter quarter staff, at Ripley’s Believe It or Not underneath a fossil of a wooly mammoth.