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Brooke Van Roy is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a new staff intern at FOX CITIES Magazine.

Hello! My name is Brooke Van Roy and I am a new editorial intern at FOX CITIES Magazine. I’m thrilled to be starting my journey here, and they want me to tell you a little bit about who I am. So, here goes!

I am a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire who enjoys reading, running and writing. While at school, I studied English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. Something I loved about the field was the ability to write about anything I was feeling passionate about, which I found particularly in poetry.

Brooke Van Roy

Now, don’t get me wrong. As a sophomore taking my first creative writing course, I was shaking just as much as my non-English major classmates at the start of the poetry unit. Even after it was over, I still wasn’t thrilled by it. It wasn’t until my senior year that I was required to take a class that was entirely based on writing poetry.

I still remember my first day at a three-hour Tuesday night class when my professor, Max Garland, told us that we would be getting out early. It wasn’t likely to happen again, though, as this was only syllabus day. We finished class in 2 hours and 45 minutes that night.

Terrified, I walked home and drank a large glass of white wine with my roommate. The next week came though, and then the next. Each week it got easier to write poetry, to share each poem with my class and to give others constructive criticism on their writing. I went from someone who feared the subject, to someone who felt excited, confident even, in the things I was writing.

Before I graduated, I needed one more course in poetry. I was elated when I found out that Garland had a spot open in his senior level poetry class. It was the first day in that course that I found out he had been the Poet Laureate of Wisconsin. I also learned that my classmates and I would be the last poetry students that he taught at UW-Eau Claire.

It was with excitement and sadness that I went into my last semester of college. On our last day of the course, a few classmates and I made sure to snap a few selfies with our legendary professor.

Brooke Van Roy (right) poses with Wisconsin Poet Laureate Max Garland.

As an English major trying to sneak my foot into the door of journalism, I take the lessons I learned from Garland and put them towards my new internship. I’ll always remember to write what I’m passionate about, exchange fear with motivation and to realize the guy I’ve been working next to could easily be the most famous one in the state.