Hello, You’ve Reached Gabby Zaldumbide
It’s pronounced Zal-dumb-BEE-day
Teamwork is a crucial part of a handbell choir. In a handbell choir, each ringer is assigned two to four notes to play. Each bell only creates one tone; every note has its own bell. Oftentimes, a different but similar instrument called a chime is also played in the choir. Chimes only make one tone, too. Every member of the choir is responsible for upwards of eight instruments making eight sounds, and those instruments must be played at the exact right moment to put a song together.
I played handbells throughout high school. Achieving the highest possible score at state competitions was meaningful to me; what are the odds that a ragtag assortment of high school students can work together well enough to clang metal at the exact right moment?
If my fellow teenage Deerfield Demons and I could make something beautiful, the highly qualified and beautifully aligned writers and editors at The Westrn certainly can, too.
What The Westrn brings to the table in terms of teamwork, skillsets, core values, and expertise is utterly unique and genuinely unmatched. Honestly, I feel a borderline ridiculous amount of imposter syndrome merely seeing my name in group chat with these inspirational people. However, at the risk of sounding totally creepy, I had a feeling the universe would let Nicole Qualtieri and I work together on something someday. I didn’t know when or how, but I knew I should pay attention.
This is the moment the stars told me was coming.
The Westrn offers solutions for some of the most pertinent issues experienced by readers, writers, and editors in storytelling today. You’re a reader; do you enjoy reading articles written by AI, heavily biased “news” articles meant to garner polarization and division, or billionaires dictating which stories get told? Shouldn’t writing be meaningful, artistic, and intentional? Shouldn’t it be pleasurable to read?
Surely I’m not the first person to tell you that storytelling, along with drawing and creating, is one of the oldest forms of artistic expression. To have robots tell our stories is to delete a piece of humanity. Since when is elimination progress? Apple’s recent iPad ad, aptly named “Crush!,” resembled this concept. The significant backlash to the 68-second, 1984-esque clip gives me hope and confidence that The Westrn has a place in our society today.
What I bring to this table isn’t a couple of handbells. Instead, I bring an undergraduate degree in wildlife ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s in public land management from Western Colorado University. I’ve been a barista, a nonprofit employee, an emperor goose technician with the U.S. Geological Survey, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources volunteer, an intern with the Wildlife Management Institute, a scientific researcher, and a hunting and fishing guide. Today, I’m a firearms instructor, a magazine editor, and a day-riding cowboy. Throughout it all, I’ve been a writer.
You can find my print magazine, Project Upland, on our website. I also freelance for other print and online publications. I tend to write about things that brew excitement in me, whether it's bird feathers, cowboying, an awesome conservation project, an amazing place, or a useful piece of gear.
By now, you likely have a hunch about my passions. If not, that’s okay. Here’s a short list:
Wildlife, especially birds and mammals.
Domestic animals, especially horses and dogs.
The outdoors. I live in western Colorado in a county that’s 82 percent public lands, on which I hunt, fish, herd cows, hike, and amble.
Stories. I’ve devoured books my entire life, and I wrote my first and only novel in a purple notebook when I was 4 years old. Spoiler alert: it’s about a girl getting her first horse.
These passions feed my storytelling, which tends to sway between journalistic deep dives, creative nonfiction, short stories, flash nonfiction, and personal narratives. I aspire to write books someday, but I’m not quite there yet.
In fewer words, I refuse to be pigeonholed.
I value freedom. Freedom of expression, freedom of choice, freedom of speech.
Because The Westrn isn’t owned by some multimillionaire in a New York City skyscraper who threatens my employment if I don’t go into the office, these freedoms exist here. Hell, most days I write in fuzzy, snowflake-printed pants and a giant purple sweater. I walk down to the corral in said outfit to pet my horses for afternoon work breaks. I would very much like to do that forever.
I doubt Apple employees or venture capitalists could form a bell choir capable of turning clangs and bonks and reverberations into sound waves that land on an eardrum as pleasantly as birdsong. I believe The Westrn can.
If us writers and editors ever find ourselves behind a clothed table decked with handbells, I’ll be sure to video it and share it with you. Because that’s silly. That’s a story. That’s human expression at its finest.
This piece is part of an introductory series to The Westrn’s editorial team. Tune in each Tuesday and Thursday over the next few weeks to meet the whole crew.
Gabby, so awesome! Your writing is always a joy to read, and your warmth radiates through! 💯
Very cool! Looking forward to more of your writing! The cool thing about literature is that every reader forms their own unique images from the writing.