The name is Rachel, or Rach to my homies. My dad calls me Peanut, but that’s a story for another time.
I’m a proud Minnesotan. Born and raised just outside Minneapolis, I grew up in a family of five. My mom, dad and two younger brothers heavily influenced who I am today (as one’s family tends to do). Reading, writing and sports were some of my earliest interests.
One of my earliest memories is writing my first story – a series of green crayon scribbles on the notebooks you had to flip the page up and over to get to the next one.
I wanted to document my first road trip, a 14+ hour drive to Colorado for a wedding with my parents and younger brother. This marked the beginning of my writing career.
I took a several-year hiatus from writing. Life (starting school full-time, playdates, birthday parties, camping trips and soccer practices) got in the way. I actually started reading more; my grandma gave me a Nancy Drew book every holiday and birthday, and those quickly became my favorite.
It wasn’t until around third or fourth grade that I started writing consistently again. I started a journal, documenting my everyday life and struggles as a young girl. The journal was pink, with a plaid pattern on the cover. I finally filled it by the end of sixth grade.
I took another break from writing to read Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series and other books from the Shadowhunter world during junior high. I picked up writing (semi-consistently) again in high school, but it wasn’t until the second semester of my freshman year of college that I really fell in love with it again.
I fell victim to seasonal depression and homesickness hard that semester. Soccer was over, spring season was still months away, and I was six hours from home and everything I had known for 18 years (Chicago is awesome, but I missed Minnesota). It was my roommate at the time who had the brilliant idea to write one thing every day that made me happy.
So I took a stack of Post-It notes and dedicated a wall in our dorm to them. It became a wildly beautiful exhibit of gratitude and joy. The more I wrote, the more I felt alive and like myself. Writing had brought me out of my valley.
I spent the next four years writing every day and learning everything I could about becoming a journalist. In May 2022, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in corporate communication and digital journalism with a minor in social media.
After graduation, I continued working as a barista at Kribi Coffee (the best damn coffee in the world, mind you) for almost two months before I accepted a position as the Communications Coordinator for St. Luke and St. Bernadine Parish in the Archdiocese of Chicago. I’m not Catholic, but it was my only lead at the time. I figured, why not?
For the next 14 months, I designed flyers on Canva for church events, created content for and designed the weekly bulletins, managed the parish’s Facebook page and created an Instagram account.
And that’s how I got my start in social. My next gig is my current one – working in social media and digital marketing for Superior Ambulance Service, the largest private ambulance service in the Midwest. I’m going on three years with the company and I’ve learned a little bit of everything. Check out my work!
Rachel Huser 