By RAFAEL FLORES, Staff Reporter |
The reception for the release of the 15th edition of the Amarillo College student and staff literary magazine, the “Freelancer,” was held on April 4 and took place in the Common Lobby Art Gallery. At the reception, writers featured in the publication read their pieces aloud.
Joshua O’Brien, the Writer’s Corner coordinator and chair of the “Freelancer” committee, said the purpose of the reception is for people to understand the meaning behind the stories.
The magazine is published once a year and features poems, essays, short stories and artwork chosen by a committee.
Evan Wilcox, a business administration major, started off the ceremony with his piece “Savage Wisdom,” an essay he wrote for an English class describing the overwhelming effects of technology’s latest advancements on humans.
Wilcox said he was inspired after spending a whole summer in the woods as a boy scout camp counselor in New Mexico and then transitioning back to college.
“Coming into the city then, giving up that life to go to school, sucked me into that frame of technology,” Wilcox said.
Then came the presentation of a poignant essay titled “Role Model,” by Diane Ynojosa, a computer science coding major.
She shared about her struggles with drug addiction and crime. “I had to overcome addiction, greed, hate and anger that I had built up,” she said, adding that attending college has given her an opportunity to take a new path. Ynojosa said she credits God and her kids as a motivation to make the change in her lifestyle.
The final presentation was a moving personal narrative, “The Path of Least Resistance” by Michael Sebastian, an art major.
In his reading, he described how a life-changing car-wreck left him paralyzed on his right side. He told the story of how he moved from considering suicide to finding a newfound meaning in everyday things. “I was hit by a car, despite that, I’m going back to college,” Sebastian said.
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