Thanks

My journalism career began at the age of eight when my elementary school newspaper had an essay application in order to get chosen as a contributor. I literally have no clue what I could have possibly written about (probably something about my current softball batting average or the woes of being the youngest child), but I saved my precious work to a floppy disk and handed it over to my teacher. Sure enough, a couple days later, I was chosen and my days of writing reviews of the latest kids movies and creating themed crossword puzzles, my expertise, began.

Throughout my younger years, I had a knack for writing. Math and science really didn’t click for me, and were honestly the most frustrating subjects. If sixth-grade me were to meet current me, she would be utterly confused about how she went from struggling with exponents because they didn’t make any darn sense to studying engineering, which has a good chunk of exponents. In addition to my blossoming passion for English in the classroom, I wrote outside of class. Though my middle school did not have a school newspaper, I often found myself writing in journals. From personal diary entries of how Ronnie Koval will never like me back (if you’re somehow reading this, please call me) to random attempts at poetry, I truly expressed myself in those spiral notebooks.

Flash forward to high school, and I needed to express my teen angst in a form other than written text. Like many other teens, I turned to Tumblr. Sharing photos and gifs truly supplemented those moody “read more” posts that only my true followers would read. My friends and I followed each other and learned our deepest darkest secrets not through our late night sleepover talks but our blogs. It was truly a unique format to express oneself, but also birthed the fear of living behind the computer screen and not actually talking about the feelings we were trying to express. Nonetheless, it created a support system like no other and truly brought my expressions to a public forefront.

Now, almost four years into college and one semester into this column, I realize that I have had such a history with expressing myself with words. I utilize this column as a springboard of what’s going on in my head. To be frank, it is the deep thoughts I have in the shower that typically make it to this column. I never write an article with “oh, I wonder what the readers want,” in mind, but always with the “okay brain, what should Stevens be told about this week?” mindset. Some weeks have been better than others but it has been such a pleasure to have free range to do whatever I want. At the end of the day, the goal of Senioritis is to encompass the mind of a senior and I truly hope I accomplish that week after week.

Journalism has been a huge part of my life. Upon deciding to try out for the Senioritis column (a very YOLO decision if you ask me) I thought I was trying something new. As it turns out, I was continuing a passion that I have had for a long time. As I wrap up my first semester writing this column,  I cannot help but be thankful for a lot of people. First, I am extremely thankful for the Stute staff for never shooting down a column of mine. There are some weeks I hit submit to my article with second guesses. There is nothing as reassuring as the editors only commenting on grammatical changes (because fun fact I’m practically illiterate).  I also want to thank the readers. I have been complimented by students, faculty, staff, and even alumni (hi Nicole) about my articles, which always prompts the immediate response of, “Yasss, thank you for reading!” In all honesty, it’s a wonderful and unique feeling to be validated over something you write. It’s that feeling that makes me regret not writing for The Stute sooner.

With that, until next semester my friends.