Invasion of Privacy: A final homage to beloved managing editor and proud frog owner Emma Mincer

If there is one thing that all members of The Lamron can agree upon, it is that senior psychology major Emma Mincer is what makes our office an incredible place to be in. Over the last several years, Mincer has been an integral part of The Lamron. As a final tribute to her time as our managing editor, we have the incredible opportunity to share her experiences with the rest of the Geneseo community. 

In our interview with Mincer, she described how becoming a part of The Lamron was an important avenue to help her find community in college — especially starting as a commuter. 

“It’s really difficult to get involved in clubs as a commuter, but then COVID hit and it was even more difficult to be living 35 minutes away, and never leaving your room ever because you get up at 7 a.m. to start reading your bio[logy] textbook and then you don’t stop reading your bio textbook until 10 p.m.,” Mincer said. 

It was after the onset of the pandemic that Mincer joined The Lamron, opting to switch from long hours at home to endless nights in the Lamron office. 

“I got an email one day sophomore year that The Lamron … was looking for writers, and I was like, ‘Oh I just love the idea of being a reporter on campus,” Mincer recalled, adding a tasteful hair flip as she spoke. 

Not only did Mincer make lasting friendships upon her joining The Lamron staff, but it also helped her grow as an individual in her self-confidence. 

“[Conducting interviews] was actually really fundamental to my growth as a person because I was terrified of people,” Mincer said. “Now I can just walk up to a person and start a conversation, and I feel so much more confident in myself and in my own abilities.”

It is perhaps this newfound confidence that allowed Mincer to pursue a degree in psychology, after initially wanting to become a medical doctor. Though this was not an easy decision for her to make, Mincer was equipped with the bravery and determination necessary to find her niche.

“I had, like, this ironclad grip on becoming a doctor. I wanted it so bad I could taste it, and then I became a bio major and I was miserable,” said Mincer. “So it was kind of hard at the beginning to like, let go of the idea… but I found things that I really did like—like psych—and found that I could have jobs [where] I could still help people and I could still learn really cool things about the human brain and human behavior even if I wasn’t a medical doctor.”

Though her outstanding work in both the newspaper and her academics certainly set her apart, Mincer contains multitudes. When jokingly asked “What is love?” Mincer was quick to reply with profound wisdom:

“Love is when the other person is more important than you are. Not in every context, obviously; you do have to take care of yourself, because if you aren’t taking care of yourself you can’t take care of anybody else. But love is, like, when you put that other person before yourself.”

Perhaps one of the most pure forms of this love that Mincer shows is with her beloved pet frog. Pierre, a White’s Tree Frog, has become a staple in both Mincer’s life as well as in the life of her friends and residents, as she is also an RA in Steuben. 

“I like to take him out [of his tank] and hold him and take pictures of him,” said Mincer. “Then my friends will come to my dorm and be like, ‘I need Emma and Pierre time. I had a rough day.’ And so there’s like a therapy session with Pierre and my friends. My residents [also] come by and see him.”

While Pierre has the privilege of seeing her every day, The Lamron staff has also felt an overwhelming sense of love from Mincer throughout her time here, and the gratitude and love we have for her dedication to this organization cannot go understated. While we will certainly miss her presence and her beauty naps on the office couch, we know that she is on to amazing things and will excel in all of her future endeavors. As members of The Lamron and as individuals, we have all been impacted by the incredible soul that is Mincer, and we are honored to have accompanied her through this part of her life.