| New book shares student’s transition to real world |
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By: By ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor
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Like many 20-somethings, Joel Frey had trouble letting go of his carefree college days.
Drinking beer, hanging out with his friends and working in the residence halls on the MTSU campus is how he preferred to spend his days.
But unlike most college grads, Frey decided to put his fingers to the keyboard and share his struggles with transitioning from college to career.
Frey, a ‘96 MTSU alum, documented his rough journey through his early 20s in his recently released self-published memoir “Two Sides of a Cypress Wall.”
“I was really trying to figure out what is means to be a grown up,” Frey said of the months following his graduation and move back to his parent’s home near Memphis.
The aspiring novelist worked in low-paying and unfulfilling jobs in the months following graduation in an attempt to support himself and obtain ever-important health insurance.
Now Frey has a job he loves and provides him with health insurance. He is the public relations manager for the online travel site Travelocity known for its roaming gnome.
Frey decided to write his coming of age story — filing it with tales of rejection and disappointment, longing to drink beer and hang out with old friends and learning what it means to work in the real world — to give graduates in their early 20s something to relate to.
He completed his first published book using correspondence he kept from friends and family in the years following his graduation. It took a year and a half to write the first draft.
“My goal with the story is not really to be guidebook,” he said. “For me it really was about audience and looking back at that time period of my life. It was really a tough period. I just wanted to give that age group a story they could relate to.”
Frey graduated college with hopes of utilizing his journalism degree, but he couldn’t separate himself from his friends and the good times he had in Murfreesboro and Nashville.
“I don’t think my expectations were too high when I graduated from MTSU,” Frey said. “Like any college grad, I wanted to land a ‘real job.’ My problem was that I didn’t have much of a plan in reaching this goal. So I moved back home.
“As soon as I returned to Memphis, I realized that I should have given further consideration to staying in the Middle Tennessee area because my former life there dominated my thoughts,” he said.
Frey graduated cum laude, with several published articles and with the distinction of being named “Outstanding News-Editorial Graduate” by his professors, but he found himself working for $6.50 an hour taking customer complaints at FedEx and working as a bellman at Holiday Inn.
“I was thinking, this is what I went to school for?” Frey said.
Eventually, Frey did end up with a job in journalism in the not so glamorous position of assistant editor of Hardwoods Monthly.
It was in the cypress walled offices of Hardwoods Monthly writing about wood that Frey learned the ins and outs of working in an office setting, and where inspiration was drawn for the title of his memoir.
“I think we all crash into a wall in our early 20s when we know that it’s time to grow up even though we don’t necessarily want to or know how to,” Frey said explaining the meaning of his book’s title. “It hurts to hit this wall. Mine just happened to be paneled in cypress.”
In the process of writing his book, Frey reconnected with old friends to inform them of their inclusion in his book.
One of these rekindlings proved to be well worth him putting his experiences out there for anyone to read.
When he contacted his old friend, Heather Presley, sparks flew. They are getting married on New Year’s Eve.
“I contacted her in December 2006 to let her know of her inclusion and that conversation eventually led us down the path we now find ourselves on,” Frey said. “I don’t have to sell another book for this project to be considered an unabashed success because otherwise I wouldn’t have found true love.”
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com. |
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