Speaker: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the hosts and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Speaker: Freshman year I came in undecided.

Speaker: I'm finance, entrepreneurship, anthropology.

Speaker: I'm a senior architecture student.

Speaker: I'm involved in the blockchain club here.

Speaker: I'm very passionate about studying abroad.

Speaker: Classes are going great.

Speaker: And then obviously very involved with my sorority.

Speaker: I'm thriving.

Meredith Aliff 

Hi, I'm Meredith Aliff. And this is major insight. This is the podcast where we talk college life with amazing students about how to find your place and purpose on campus.

Melanie Hamon has found creative ways to carve out a unique college path for herself as a writer and musician. As Creative Writing major, with minors in Cello Performance and Rhetoric, Melanie is also active across campus as a writing tutor for the Howe writing center, a grant writer, and as part of the Happy Captive Literary Magazine.

We’ll also talk about finding your own voice and style. About learning to embrace feedback from your peers, and about how college is the perfect time to make mistakes and to completely reinvent yourself -- to be who you really want to be -- and all while planning for the future, and while still taking it all one day at a time.

Meredith Aliff 

And the first question that I have for you is who are you?

Melanie 

I'm Melanie Hamon. I'm a senior creative writing major. And I've got minors and rhetoric and cello performance.

Meredith Aliff 

Very cool. So let's go back to before you came to college, what did your college search look like?

Melanie 

I've got two older siblings that ... I'm from Indianapolis, and they both went to college in Indiana. So like, my main thing was, I didn't want to go anywhere like where they went. So I wanted to go far away. And I wanted a place that was really good at Creative Writing, especially because I knew I wanted to be a writer. I liked writing and I thought it was really cool. And then especially through like high school and things, my school was very stem focused. And I knew that I didn't want to do that, because I did it all the time. And I wanted a space to be a writer and have space to write with other writers.

Meredith Aliff 

That's awesome. Well, walk me through kind of a day in the life of classes for you. And kind of a daily schedule.

Melanie 

A lot of what I do is projects, especially when I was doing my cello minor, I had to practice two hours a day. So if I got up early, I would go to the music building and practice for two hours, and then go to class for a couple hours. And then for writing especially, we'll have a couple classes that are like lecture based, and a couple classes that are workshop based, but usually only have a few people per class, and you do a lot of reading. So you go to class, maybe you talk about the book. And then I have a break in between classes where I work on my writing project for another class, go to another class, and it might be like a workshop. So we would all talk about somebody's piece or talk about my piece. Luckily, not very heavy on, like, a lot of people in the class or not very heavy on the number of classes, but there's a lot of work to do outside of class.

Meredith Aliff 

Does it make you nervous? Or did it make you nervous when you started to have to kind of present your work to the rest of the class and like take kind of pure feedback on that?

Melanie 

It definitely did. One of the really nice things I learned in college, cuz in high school, I feel like a lot of people write and you can immediately tell whether it's good or bad. But when you're in college, everyone's already had to write a lot to get to where they are. So you don't have that anymore. And there's this really nice thing of just seeing how different everybody styles are, and learning along the way that like, it's hard to tell where you are in relation to everybody else, because it's not really a vertical scale anymore, if that makes sense. And so I definitely started out nervous, and I still compare myself to everybody else in class. But I think I'm a lot more comfortable with it now. Because I know that everyone has something about their piece that is really unique and really great that can't be mimicked by anybody else.

Meredith Aliff 

Totally. Well, that kind of made me think...  I interviewed somebody last year. And she did studio art. And she kind of had this focus of like, women, and like women's sexuality and things like that. Would you say that writers kind of have like a focus like that, like a realm that they write about? Or do you write about everything?

Melanie 

I guess it depends on where you are in your career, especially for me and my goal in creative writing classes is to figure out what I want to write for a job. And so some people I think already know that. There are some people that do a lot of like women gender and sexuality writing. And then there are even people that take creative writing classes that don't want to do it professionally and just want to figure out what they like. So for me, especially, I write in a lot of different areas. And I just kind of tried so far to see like what fits and what feels good for me.

Meredith Aliff 

Has anything stuck out to you so far?

Melanie 

Yeah, actually, I really like nonfiction, which is not what I thought I would do.

Meredith Aliff 

Interesting. Okay, so like novels, or just like shorter pieces.

Melanie 

So far shorter pieces, but a lot of it is like a memoir focused kind of thing.

Meredith Aliff 

Very nice. So going off of that, are there any teachers or classes that you would like to give a shout out to today?

Melanie 

Yes, Dr. Kim, my cello professor, she can be really challenging. She really pushes you. And for a year maybe I thought, like, I can't do this program, I'm gonna fail out. But she taught me how to manage my time and how I really put the work in. And also I think we learned together how to figure out what I liked and what I could do in a field that wasn't my major.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah, absolutely. Do you have like showcases and things like that if it's a minor?

Melanie 

Yes. So Dr. Kim's cello Studio does, like, we have studio days once a week where everybody plays a piece and gets feedback, like a masterclass. And then there's a cello ensemble recital once a semester. And then when you have a minor, you do a recital at the end of your degree to like, show off what you learned. I don't know ... a little bit I wasn't technically adept enough to do like the really hard technical, classical things. And I wasn't interested in it. So I did some contemporary pieces and some folk pieces that were just really fun to listen to and play. And then I also wrote a short story based on one of the pieces I played, and I read it at my own recital.

Meredith Aliff 

That is so neat, to be able to turn like music into words and kind of combine these two things that you have going is so cool. So obviously, you're starting to think professionally, you're starting to think past college. What is your plan?

Melanie 

I hope to work in the nonprofit area as like a job. So my partner actually lives in Bloomington, Indiana, and I plan to move there and work with some nonprofits. And then right now, every six months, I submit, like creative work to journals. So I plan to continue doing that. And then hopefully, in like, 10 or 20 years make a career off of my creative writing.

Meredith Aliff 

That's awesome. That's so cool. Do you have any idea? Are you thinking still nonfiction when you kind of take off with your own creative writing?

Melanie 

I think so. I think I'll probably write in various genres for a long time. And then I guess, whatever sticks and gets more traction as well, I'll go with.

Meredith Aliff 

I think, and I've talked to this with every single senior that I've ever interviewed on this podcast, but to have an outline, you know, "this is what I would like to happen." But nobody has it 100% Like, you really just, we're just taking it day by day. We're just trying to get to graduation, get those first couple steps. And then, you know, I love that there's some calm in not having it all completely figured out right now. Because how are we supposed to?

Melanie 

Yeah. Ans when you ask somebody, usually what they say is, I had a plan after college, and I did not follow that plan, or ...

Meredith Aliff 

No, never, never, it's so stressful to kind of try to keep yourself to this super strict, regimented schedule that you have going for your life, it's nearly impossible.

Melanie 

Yeah.

Meredith Aliff 

College has a ton of stereotypes before going in, preconceived ideas of what it's going to be like, did any preconceived stereotypes that you had about college hold true?

Melanie 

I think some of them did. I'm not a Greek life person. So Greek life, to me, in general has always been like this very far away idea. And from what I've seen, just like the social aspects, and like, the amount of things that you do in Greek life, and things you have to, like, keep up with and engage in, I definitely saw hold true from my experience. I do have a friend that's in Greek life and another university, that I guess I also entered college with an idea of like, you know, like the nerds and the social people.

Meredith Aliff 

Like High School. Yeah, basically, like high school. Yeah,

Melanie 

Yeah, I'm definitely a nerd. And I'm not very social. But my best friend from high school, who's at another university is very social. So that was really surprising. And I guess that also, like, broke some of the stereotypes I had in mind.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, college is kind of a time to reinvent yourself and be who you really want to be. And I found that I am not nearly the same person that I was in high school, not even close, because College gives you this amazing opportunity to step outside of, like, I don't have to be a social butterfly or a nerd, I can be both at the exact same time. And you can kind of pick this awesome, unique path that's just your own. And everybody just kind of goes on with their own lives. Nobody really cares what you do. And, yeah, that was so refreshing to me coming in that I'm like, you know, I came from a very small high school, and I felt like it was all eyes on me all the time. And I know that wasn't how it was, but that's just how it feels. But to come here, and genuinely, everybody's just kind of trying to do their own thing and get through college. And it's a really great opportunity to make mistakes and figure out who you are and become confident and who you are. And that's a huge benefit of college outside of like, the classes.

Melanie 

Yeah. And I think that regardless of who somebody is, and what they're doing, like everybody is gonna go to a party on Halloween and everybody's also going to go home and study for eight hours. Like it's not either or.

Meredith Aliff 

Exactly. Yeah, I mean, I remember finals week of last semester. Oh my gosh, I spent over 40 hours 50 hours in one week at King Library alone. And that's like not including like taking breaks and studying an Armstrong or going home and studying like just at King. I don't think I've stepped foot in there since because I still like can't face it. I'm like not till finals week of this of this semester. Am I gonna be able to go back in there. But at the same time, I've made so many great memories with my friends and we've dressed up for Halloween like you said, and we've done all the fun stuff and we love going to the market on Saturdays and like just finding that balance and doing what makes you happy. That is also setting you up the best for the most success in your life, like, obviously have to find the balance of that. But it's such a cool opportunity to be able to do that in a place like college - really low responsibility, really high amounts of freedom. And you just get to kind of explore yourself for a while, which is super fun. Yeah. So thinking back through your entire four years here, if you had to go back to yourself, you know, maybe senior year coming in and getting ready to be a freshman in college, what would you tell yourself with the knowledge that you now have?

Melanie 

I would say reach out to people more. I guess this is a tricky question, because like, I spent my first semester of college at home, but the people that were in my class reached out and emailed and we had like a Snapchat group, but we never used it. And then now I still see those people at work. And I see them every day. And it's like, you know, at one point, we had this, like, shared experience. And now I feel like I don't know anything about you. And I think that if I had reached out to those people, I would have found a sense of belonging faster. And I wouldn't have felt like I had to make as much of a space for myself and felt more like there was already a space there for me.

Meredith Aliff 

And I think, overall, is just to not think too deeply about it coming in, like, you know, everything's gonna happen exactly how it's supposed to. Obviously, you have to do your part as the individual. But, you know, I was so stressed. So stress coming in, and just no clue. You know, I was the oldest child, I had no one to kind of show me the ropes of any of this. And I love that you going back to way in the beginning of our conversation, but the fact that you wanted to branch out, you didn't want to go where your siblings were going and you wanted to go explore this new world is already so ambitious. Was there a reason that you didn't want to do that?

Melanie 

I guess it's just like, you know, your siblings do stuff. And you either want to do exactly like them or exactly opposite.

Meredith Aliff 

Yes, absolutely. And it's like with parents, too. You're either like besties, and I am like this with my parents, literally, from one day to the next, where I'm like, oh, like best friend. Love you. And then I'm like, please, please don't I don't ... I don't want to hear your advice. We';re done. Yeah, no, that's so fair. And I think senior year is kind of the perfect storm to start making decisions like that, where you are still under your parents’ roof. But you just want to get out so badly. And you want to be different and you want to go do your own thing. And you've been cooped up long enough, especially our year.

Melanie 

Yeah.

Meredith Aliff 

I was so ready to get out of there. I could not wait. But yeah, I think you already had a lot of ambition wanting to go and start this new journey on your own and kind of figure things out on your own is so good. So I think you really had quite ... quite a journey to get where you are today. But it has been an absolute pleasure meeting you and thank you so so much for coming.

Melanie 

Yes, you too. Thank you.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah, absolutely. And we're done.

Melanie Hamon is a creative writing major, with minors in Cello Performance and Rhetoric at Miami University. After graduation, plans to work as a grant writer non-profit sector, while also still continue pursue her dream of a creative writing professional.

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