COMMENTARY: A PERSONAL REFLECTION
STORY By Charlie Roller (They/Them)
I chose to go to Delaware Valley University, a notorious agricultural school, as an English major. And I did so for two reasons: (1) location and (2) to learn something new. I have always loved writing but I have equally always loved animals. I have had a pet surround me in every era of my life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I thought I really loved animals; until I met Trinity.
Trinity Gomez recently graduated in the fall of 2025 with a Bachelor’s in Wildlife Conservation & Management. She is a aspiring ornithologist and we met through mutual friends and soon came close in the spring semester of 2025. Since then, we have been best of buds.
I love to make content and editing videos in a fun and “crazy” way. Whether I am behind the camera or in front, I have always had a passion for sharing my ideas and visions across the digital web. And I think someone like Trinity deserves to have her knowledge shared with others. This semester (Fall of 2025) I took a Digital Video and Editing course and was handed two assignments that I immediately knew who to go to. The first assignment was a interview based project where we had to display a use of “A and B roll” and effectively share a story.
This was Trinity and I’s first video. This assignment was mainly focused on the interview and I decided to add the birding part as my own little fun thing. This was filmed on my iPhone 13 with a microphone. Some major challenges were with the editing process: during upload, the quality got horrible. It is hard to see the birds due to the camera quality. However, through it all, Trinity is the star. She is beautifully sharing her understanding on birds and despite me having an issue with the mics in the beginning, never let it deter her on her mission: talking about birds.
After this video was uploaded and shared to the DVUMedia Youtube channel, I got one message very clear: the people wanted more. Multiple people direct messaged and shared in person to me and Trinity that we should make another video. And so we did! My final project for my Digital Video class was basically a “whatever you wanted” type of project, so I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And this time, thing didn’t go as planned.
I took my suggestions from the last video and changed it up. I borrowed a camera from my lovely professor Marion Callahan and kept with the same silly vibe that I had in the previous video and amped it up just a little. Challenges during this video all came from the audio: the mics I used were super sensitive so I had to tweak it a ton.
Things were so rough with this video that half of our footage was lost due to me carelessly messing with the camera settings and hitting a button by accident! It felt like it was meant to be though. So two days later, we decided to film it again and use clips from both of the days that we filmed to add to the message that everyday is different. One day you might see a great blue heron alone on a rock, and some days you will see an eastern bluebird alone on a branch. Through all of our efforts, we still had an amazing time and I learned so much.
Through knowing Trinity, my life has changed. To see so much passion in a person is enthralling. She is going to change the world in birding; I know it. In just the two times that I have been birding (both with her) I have learned so much: I walk quietly, I whisper, I look up around me, and I listen. I hope to be able to go birding with Trinity and make educational content in a fun manner like this forever.