DON’T PANIC: Dylan Sherpf has got it all figured out

By Emily K. Rosser, ENGL 336.001

Dylan Sherpf is a man on a mission.  In this age of college deadbeats who value paychecks over passion and a sheepskin over self-fulfillment, he’s going after what he truly loves: creative writing.  He’s currently a junior studying at Frostburg State University.  Just from sitting down for a chat, one can tell that he’s confident, collected, and dedicated to his schooling.  He’s a guy who knows his direction in life.

Dylan knew early on that writing would be his destiny.  He discovered his writing skills in high school and, with his favorite comedy and sci-fi novels and shows as inspiration, knew what his field would be upon enrolling at FSU.  His favorite series, unsurprisingly, is Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Taking a page from Adams’s offbeat career in radio and text-based adventure games, Dylan knows that a writer’s future isn’t confined to press rooms and technical manuals.  “I hope to write a novel, or a script for video games, or maybe even for TV and movies,” he says.

Lookin' official: Dylan Sherpf as a PartnerComm intern

With that same sense of adventure, Dylan decided to travel to Arlington, TX, last summer for a summer job.  Through a family connection, he secured an internship at PartnerComm, a group that describes themselves as “employee communication experts.” There, Dylan honed his pen by turning Human-Resource-legalese into down-to-earth, understandable guidebooks.  Dylan succinctly summed up the company’s mission in saying, “They take the 40-page guide and shrink it.”  Like many writers, he’s had his share of less-than-cerebral jobs, as well.  During previous summers, “I worked at Pizza Hut, which helped me decide I didn’t want to work in fast food,” he said with a laugh.

Originally from Havre De Grace, MD, a city of roughly 13,000 harbored at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, Dylan breaks the mold of his two brothers that came before him.  One is a Mechanical Engineer in Hagerstown, MD, and the other is straight out of college with a Computer Science degree.  Truly at home in the waters and mountains of Maryland, Dylan enjoys hiking, snowboarding, playing pickup soccer, and being on the water with friends.  “I just like seeing all the mountains,” he says.  “Texas was flat--it’s kind of nice to be back here.”  Also a fan of video games, Dylan excitedly rattled off enough titles to show that he’s a dedicated gamer, likely to stick with his hobbies far into the future.

And why not?  After all, with Dylan’s kind of ambition, he may be the one writing them someday soon.