Signing off from the Editor’s desk

When I started editing for The Record in Spring 2020, in the second semester of my sophomore year here, there was a lot I didn’t know. I knew the basics of InDesign, and I knew how to write stories, and I knew I loved journalism. As I get ready to graduate at the end of this semester, I look back at my first time walking into the office as the start of one of my best college experiences.

What I didn’t know was that a global pandemic would close our newsroom just a few months later, or that I would take over as Editor-in-Chief in Fall 2020 with most of my staff having graduated in the spring. I also didn’t know the deep sense of camaraderie I would develop with everyone else in the newsroom, or how much deeper my appreciation for this campus and the people who make it special would become.

Working for The Record has been one of the best parts of my college experience. I’ve met people I otherwise never would have crossed paths with. One of the benefits of my job as a reporter has been that every week, I had the opportunity to sit down and share a conversation with someone and learn something new. I truly believe everyone and everything is interesting if you take the time to listen and seek to understand. Every time I started work on an assignment for The Record, I was reminded how nuanced every aspect of our lives is. There is never a boring story, because even in the seemingly mundane there is depth and beauty.

The newsroom is a microcosm of our campus. We have people from all sorts of majors, in all classes, with a variety of other extracurricular obligations. The Record introduced me to some fascinating people, and working with them until the early hours of the morning on a college paper quickly became the highlight of my week. There’s no other way I’d rather have spent that time.

I want to thank everyone who’s shared some time with me contributing to The Record. Everyone from our advisor Kelly Smith, who is very skilled at putting out the fires we set, to our editors, writers, columnists, photographers, advertisers, distributors, printers and readers. I can’t adequately express what this paper means to me, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to lead this newsroom as we create a paper each week to share with you.

As bittersweet as it is to leave The Record, I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to work alongside so many fantastic people on such a great paper. I can’t wait to see the places they take the paper next. Good luck and thanks for all the memories.