Meet Our New Intern: Maggie Diedrich

The act of writing about oneself always seems weirdly impersonal to me. The donning of a narrator role to reveal my triumphs, my failures, and all that’s in between seems like it’d be a job for someone else. I think that it’s still the Northerner’s privacy mindset talking. I grew up about an hour away from Chicago alongside the corn, snow, and prairie grass of the Midwest. My town was the same as any other small town, we had the typical small-town Americana feel: a parade every so often to celebrate some event or another, a fun rivalry with the next town over, and a big fancy house in the center of everything that the local government had invested in preserving.

Knoxville feels entirely different; this city feels more like a bunch of towns shambled together underneath a trench coat. The people are different too, kinder and way more interested in making eye contact. The “good mornings” and “ma’ams” got to be grating pretty quick, but they too became less anomalous after a while. Family dinners became a weekly occurrence when I moved down South, I came the year after my parents and it seems they acclimated rather quickly. My mother got cast iron within the first month and now swears by it. I’ve never seen my dad more invested in a sport other than collegiate women’s basketball. Making good friends proved to be difficult for a while, but thankfully a fellow out-of-state transplant and a die-hard Swiftie came to my rescue. They support me in everything I do- even when I’m in the wrong. I am very lucky to have the people in my life that I do and I am eternally grateful for them.

Upon my graduation in May of 2024, I will be the second woman in my family to have achieved a college degree, with my mother having the honor of being first. It took a while and it was difficult, especially as I have worked and gone to school simultaneously since I was fourteen. My mother convinced me to take a semester off between my sophomore and junior years as I wasn’t unsure as to whether or not I was taking the right path. Even though I could not see it then, I can see now how necessary that break was to recalibrate. My first semester back I met someone who prefers to not see their name in print and has since become a trusted advisor of mine. This past fall, I met a scholarly artist who convinced me that I should have bigger dreams. Since my return, I have steadily improved my skills, joined The Daily Beacon, and performed at my academic best. I am incredibly lucky to have had the opportunities I have both professionally and personally and look forward to my future in graduate work.

Maggie Diedrich is a senior at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and will graduate with her Bachelor’s in English Rhetoric and Writing. She is a contributor at The Daily Beacon and enjoys tattoos, reading, and music.