Nicole's Big Honest Update on 'The Westrn'

It's long overdue, tbh.

Hi friends,

The past two years have been humbling, educational, inspiring, and — even more strangely — the only way the path could shake out into what might be my true ‘calling’ in this big adventure of life.

What I’ve Been Doing

I now go by ‘Miss Q’ as an English teacher at my local high school, and I’ve taken to it as an elk takes to north-facing slopes. I have 113 students in grades 8-12. I teach three junior-level English classes, two eighth-grade English classes, and one Creative Writing class that most of my students took because it was the only elective left.

We are what’s called a Title I school; nearly 70% of my students face poverty-related issues daily. It’s a high-trauma, high-needs, free breakfast and lunch and “hey do you need to take food home because we will shove it into your backpack if you do” kind of school. I’ve been sworn at, stormed out on, made fun of, and outright ignored. And I love it.

Bring it on, little babies! I can match your energy with respect, fire, and passion. That, too, is paying off. My students are skipping less, coming to me for help, and trusting in their small hope that I’ll at least stay until the end of the semester. Prior to me coming, they’d cycled through three teachers in their English classroom this year.

All that said, I’m also receiving this sort of feedback. This is how a student answered the question “Where do you feel most supported?” in another class:

Of course, I’m staying. Of course, I am. I’m having a ball. I’m built for this.

Bringing It Back to The Westrn

But that also brings me back here, to The Westrn. To this little place that we’ve cultivated together. Some of you have worked with me, some have written for me and the other folks who built this up, many of you have financially committed to us through Substack.

And I’ll be honest, I feel like I haven’t lived up to expectations 100% of the time. I’m sure I’ve missed mailing out some issues to folks, I’ve certainly not written as much as I’ve promised to this in the past three months, and though I did talk about pausing print a while ago, some of you might have missed that.

For now, it looks like print is on pause for the long haul. Initially, when folks started subscribing to Substack, we promised just two long reads online for the price of $50. We didn’t change that price when we went to print — that was probably a mistake.

We ended up insanely upside down on our second print issue. The learning curve of DIY print is high and immediate, and yet I know Kestrel, L, and I are all still really proud of what we accomplished. But, we were also funding a LOT of what we did ourselves and we weren’t able to bring it together.

We Really Did Accomplish So Much

I’m proud of the countless hours put in by everyone who has put time into this experiment. Maggie Slepian, Gabriela Zaldumbide, Katie Hill, and Kestrel Keller all took a mega chance on something, and they put countless hours into giving it a college try. It was imperfect, it was educational, and it was — and still is — one of the better professional educations I’ve had.

Additionally, we were able to hire over a dozen writers, work with them to put out something we believed in, and put it on paper. We became an award-winning publication online, and I know some of our writers have put in for multiple contests this year. I’m excited to see the results.

We have also been a top 50 Environmental Substack for most of our time here. I’ve seen The Westrn sidle up to some of the biggest names in Environmental Writing right now, including Bill McKibben. Insanity. In. San. Ity.

A Deserved ‘Mea Culpa’ and Making Things Right

If you’ve been wondering what’s going on around here, don’t worry. I have to. I’ve been sitting with it for a hot minute, and I put it on pause while I settled into a routine that I haven’t been in since the year 2002.

Add being in front of the classroom instead of in it, and I’ve had many days where I came home and literally crawled into bed after sheer energetic exhaustion and/or my immune system getting hammered by literally every sickness that runs through the school. (Seven years of remote work isn’t a grade A recipe for immune strength.)

Frankly, I’ve been behind on The Westrn since December. I’ve been fighting for my life a bit, so I have some catching up to do. I also tell my kids that excuses are like thumbs — everyone has two of them, and I give both thumbs down to that.

I deserve a taste of my own medicine.

We’re Back to a Substack

Long live print, but yes — print is dead.

And ‘we’ is now me. Kestrel might stop in every once in awhile with an update, or a story, or a musing. But they have been sitting on a potential book deal that will discuss queerness in the hunting sphere and my dream for them is that I get to hold that damn book in my hands sooner rather than later. Katie started her own Substack up, and I suggest you go give it a ‘Subscribe’.

We’re back to where we started. We didn’t change the price when we went to print, and I won’t change it now. I will stick with two long reads a month, and I will catch up on the fact that I owe you all four long reads. I’ll make them up over the next three months.

After settling into teaching, I’m excited to write again. I’m also thinking about how I can integrate some of my past gear review work more into The Westrn, how I could write about my teaching experiences, and how I can offer more educational content on the outdoors and beyond on my own. I’ve wanted to write more about my horses and donkeys, and the kids have asked me to help them start a high school rodeo team. So, adventures are afoot.

And if you missed my most recent long read, you can find it below:

I Probably Owe Some of You A Few Things

Did You Pre-Purchase ‘The Hunting Issue’?

We started a small campaign for ‘The Hunting Issue’ a while back. Many of you contributed $15 toward that effort. I will add a free year-long subscription to this Substack for those of you who did that. Thank you for believing in us.

Are You Missing Either a ‘Spring 2025’ or ‘Summer 2025’ Issue?

Please send me a direct email to qualtieri.nicole@gmail.com with your shipping address, and I will mail them out over my ‘spring break’ the week after next.

Do You Need Something Else in a ‘Customer Service’ type situation?

Please just reach out to qualtieri.nicole@gmail.com and I’ll help get it figured out.

More than Anything, Thank You

Much ore has been smelted near me, at the Anaconda Smelter. And as I always say, whoever smelter, dealt her. (Photo: Montana FWP)

I’ve been ore in the smelter for the past two years. It’s a fitting anecdote, living on the outskirts of Anaconda, Mont.

It’s an odd thing to go so quickly from chasing my own dreams to being the fuel that lights the fire of the future. I’ve wrestled with it. Becoming a teacher means starting over, going back to school myself, attending college while teaching full-time, and pursuing a Masters in order to make a salary that is, in my case, slightly frightening even at the higher levels.

But I’m charging ahead and doing my best to keep the scarcity mindset six feet under. I come from a working-class background, and it looks like I’m staying here — but it also feels like the universe split some freakin’ hairs for a reason.

I’m excited to write again, I’m excited to teach these kids how to write, and I hope you decide to stick around for the journey.

With grit, guts, and determination —

Miss Q

And P.S. I’d love to hear what you think. Feel free to comment or send an email. As I tell my classroom, give me three answers and then we’ll move on to the next thing.