Well, as Jim Carrey said in 2000 Christmas movie classic, “The Grinch”: “It’s practically here.”
Except he was talking about Christmas. Though the holiday is less than a month away, I’m more concerned with my impending graduation, which is even closer.
Yeah, you heard me. After seven adventure-packed, soul-shaping and always challenging semesters on the Hill, two Saturdays from now, Dec. 14, I’ll become just another face who’s come and gone.
Naturally, such a realization has cut deep.
No more cushion, no more education-endowed structure. Soon it’ll be up to me to provide my own structure, live and die by its consequences.
Enough of the despair, though — it’s about now I’ll choose to reflect on the “good times” (in the words of iconic late ‘80s rap group N.W.A., “Don’t call it a” … coping mechanism?), specifically the good times at my home of the past five semesters, the Adams-Whitaker Student Publications Center.
Though I declared a journalism major before my first day of classes at WKU — so, so long ago during the Fall 2016 semester — I didn’t try my luck at our fine student-led newspaper, the College Heights Herald, until my sophomore year. With an inclination toward the arts and people-based writing, I jumped on board with the Life, or features, section and never got off.
In my time as a features reporter, copy desk editor and features editor, I’m happy to say I’ve gotten opportunities I never anticipated. From writing an article entirely in Spanish, speaking with an 82-year-old capable of swimming as many laps as his age to auditioning for a famous survival series, it’s easy to say I’ve had fun.
It’s true. My time at the Herald has introduced me to great sources, great stories and even greater friends. It’s too bad I didn’t recognize that until this week.
I guess there was just something wistful about helping produce the last print edition of the Herald I’ll know as a WKU student. So it goes.
As I begrudgingly approach a stage of life free of training wheels, I’m grateful for the time I did have as a Herald staffer, and I hope to keep the WKU Student Publications family close for the time I have left and beyond. You (including everyone with WKU student-run magazine the Talisman, where I wrote happily for three semesters(!)) helped me so much.
For all returning staffers, keep up the passion, the fight. I’ll miss you guys more than I let on, but I’ll sit well knowing you got good things coming.
And lastly, remember: If you want a story, you can make it happen.
Commentaires