Editor-in-chief. Once the title made me sick with anxiety, but now, as my last week at the University of West Florida is drawing to a close, I recognize the ache from leaving my staff and desk as something more than fear of change coming full circle. My time at The Voyager has intrinsically changed me, and leaving this place that I have come to claim as my own builds a sense of extreme loss in me. Something like feeling your heart skip a beat in the middle of the night.
An open forum made so you can express yourself, whether through finding all information important to the prompt or through stringing your opinions together to form a clear and convincing editorial, is every wordsmith’s dream. Though my first assignment for The Voyage was to attend a frat party where an ‘80s cover band was playing, I quickly found my niche and moved up the chain from that moment on.
Writing for each section was enlightening, to say the least, but this weekly column ,where I am able to sound off on issues affecting us, is what I will miss the most, besides the staff. I hope that any of you who have followed my editorials have enjoyed them and that they have served to instigate some sort of action. Now on to my last endorsement, the one closest to my heart.
If you have ever considered joining The Voyager staff in any capacity, I enthusiastically encourage you to pursue that thought. Responsible journalism inspires critical thinking, something many college students are searching for in a university experience.
I found the newsroom to be challenging, accepting and heartwarmingly familiar. The people I work with, some of whom will continue to be staff next year, became a little clique over the year, as witnessed by anyone who walked in to the newsroom while we laughed so hard over a YouTube video that we struggled to put our professional faces on. The short-haired grammar freak, the unconventional Marine wife, the dreadhead always in his corner and the blondie who loves to comment will be in my heart forever, as well as the other editors, advisers, contributors and reporters.
I wasn’t the girl crying at high school graduation, and I won’t be that girl May 2. Waxing emotional about changes isn’t really my thing, but my time on The Voyager staff has changed me so immensely that I feel my dull grief at leaving deserves acknowledgment. Farewell to the University and The Voyager.
Be the first to comment on this article!