There are very few words in the English speaking language that rhyme–even nearly so–with Butler-VanderLinden.

Several of them could make for a catchy title while coupled with my 18 letter long surname, but none of them make logical sense. While the name of this column came by process of elimination, it now prompts me to ask: What’s your problem (Aside from a severe lack of convenient options in the naming department)?

This question has been floating in and out of my head as every draft revision and comma splice becomes closer and closer to being my last of the year. Why did I choose this place of 12 point font and three-sentence paragraphs to narrate nine months of my life? Why delve into xenophobia or environmental conservation or gender inequality, and why talk about synagogues in Glencoe or algae in Lake Michigan?

The concept for Emma’s Dilemmas was born out of a last-minute pitch, 24 lines of poetry, and several descriptive references to Disney animated films. What began as a critical essay for my Reading and Writing Across Genres class quickly metamorphosed into an opportunity to carve out a space for my voice. I had covered hard news and written features, but it was in this article that I found the most truth. If reporters are the journalists who provide the facts for the people, then op-ed writers and columnists are the journalists who interpret them for the people.

“Dropping the F-Bomb: Why Young Adults Need Feminism & How Literature Can Help Us Get There” was the first and only opinion piece I published as a freshman staff writer. Using “Mock Orange,” by contemporary poet Louise Glück–a pastoral that addresses the double-standards that burden and exhaust women–as an example of feminist literature, I analyzed sexism at Parker.

Originally pitched as commentary centered around the role of gender inside and outside of the classroom, the tone of my column took a sharp turn when it was only a handful of weeks old. While Tuesday, November 8 slowly melted into Wednesday, November 9, it left a scorching path of fear and uncertainty in its wake. Donald J. Trump had won the Presidential Election after an acrimonious, divisive campaign–and like hundreds of journalists and writers, my pen shifted with my gaze.

Let the record reflect that I, Emma, did not intend for my dilemmas to revolve around this country’s political landscape, but my change in narrative was evident even in the first article I published post-election.

“Never before in my lifetime have I been so thoroughly and personally exposed to the power of scare tactics. This election was about more than Democrats facing off against Republicans, the donkeys taking up arms against the elephants in a time-honored dance. For me, and for millions of others, this election was deeply personal.”

Before developing and publishing this column, I didn’t contemplate the importance of opinion journalism. A democratic society cannot properly function without hard news to check the integrity of said society, and a democracy is not a true democracy unless the voices of the people and their publications are maintained.

Now, while I find it utterly pretentious to claim that I am “an interpreter for the people” as a student journalist at a private school, what I hope I have done with some degree of success is provide another perspective to consider.

What is my problem? That too often the voices that are most central to an issue are too few and far between.

I am privileged enough to see myself represented in most sectors of American culture. However, I have also grown up listening to legislators in dry-cleaned suits debate the legality of my parents’ marriage as if the right to love were a matter of policy and not a human right and have watched as businessmen with histories of sexual harassment fall in and out of power, and I’ve found that it doesn’t always bring about the end of a career (as it should).

Next year, there will be a host of new columnists. Though I can’t predict what themes they will explore, what issues they will tackle, or how they will work around their own naming inconveniences, I hope that they will have the opportunity to examine the unique facets of their creative voices and opinions through writing–because we are stronger as a paper, as a school, as a community, and as a country when perspectives from all walks of life are represented.