Sunday, December 13, 2009

The end of an era, sort of

I might venture to say the past week and a half, and by extension this entire semester, has been full of some of the "bests" I have ever had in college. Now, this is saying a lot, considering the end of the semester is always really stressful. But, I must say, I think mine went quite smoothly. It was jam-packed with final projects and exams and papers and little sleep, but I made it through. We always make it through. I took some awesome classes and learned a ton and was inspired by one in particular enough to pursue the area further in an independent study. The "best" part comes in with the quality time I spent with my friends. Let's face it, I burnt myself taking cinnamon buns out of the oven during a family breakfast we were making, and I am now sad because the 'scar' I thought I would have forever to remember the day is actually almost completely healed and gone--that's true friendship.

The saddest part about the end of this semester was making the decision not to return as an editor to The Eagle in the spring. It was a really hard decision. I know many others on staff share this same sentiment (especially our editor-in-chief aka my bestie/roomie, Jen Calantone): The Eagle is our baby. It's been the lifeblood of my college experience. It will continue to be even next semester, as I plan to still write the health column, which I am pumped about, as well as take photos as often as I possibly can. I learned so much working for a college newspaper. It hasn't made me necessarily want to go into journalism, however it has improved my writing and photography skills and taught me a lot about how journalists think and what they want to report on, which will prove incredibly important in the PR field. It has also showed me so much about teamwork. Every Sunday and Wednesday we all get together (play music and make loud, sometimes inappropriate comments)--and we collectively make a newspaper. There's been the wonderful days when I got to take pictures of presidential candidate Barack Obama at his Jan. 28 rally at AU when Senator Kennedy endorsed him...and there's the equally wonderful days when that man becomes President Obama. Then, there's the tragic days, like when we had to report on Senator Kennedy passing away on Aug. 26 of this year.

But despite having worked at a newspaper on arguably the most politically active campus in the country during one of the most politically exciting times in the history of this country, not every day was so thrilling. Some days, we'd realize the first sex column of the semester sparked the most popular debate and follow-up editorials and letters to the editor we saw all semester--and I personally would almost lose hope (although not really in the legitimacy of the publication, but more so in the future of this generation.) There's still the negative comments on stories about how writers are bad or stories are boring, or just the lack of comments on stories that are important. There's still the days you look around and think, does all this effort really mean anything to anyone?

By contrast, there are the days we have said, "If a news story happens on campus and The Eagle doesn't cover it, does it really happen?"

Well, it was interesting, because last Thursday when my class was presenting our research to AU's Music Program following a semester-long project, we starting talking about how to increase the awareness of musical performances on campus. A few people suggested they advertise more in The Eagle and maybe pitch ideas to The Scene section about feature stories, say if there was something special a particular musician had done or something. Our client looked dubious. "Does anyone really read The Eagle though? Who here reads The Eagle?" Nearly every person in the class raised their hand. Granted, we're all communication students, but still. It's the campus newspaper, it reports on issues relevant to the students on campus--of course students should want to read it. My point here is, what we do does matter. We create a dialogue. We report on what is important for a very specific, niche population at a university. We take improving our reporting very seriously. We on the photo team take improving our photos very seriously. The design team takes designing creative pages seriously. It's our job. And I loved every second of it and will miss it terribly.

But I think what I will miss most is the people, the co-workers who became my best friends. (I don't know if any of you will read this. I will probably find a way to bring it to your attention though, so you better read it!) I learned so much from all of you--technically speaking and in deeper, more intangible ways. Thank you.

Anyhow, before I go too overboard on the mushiness...this entry goes out to all my Eagle staffer friends, past and present, who hold a special place in my heart. I have one final message for all of you to keep in mind, whether it's a good day or a bad day or an in-between day:

When it's time to party, we will always party hard. Party hard.

3 comments:

Ethan Klapper said...

That was touching. I'm gonna miss my seatmate!

kristenmpowell said...

I never comment on blogs, Kelly, but you're going to make me cry!

Also, check out that dynamic page design. We basically never repeated a frontpage. I didn't even realize it.

KellyAlysia said...

I will miss fighting over ethernet cords with you, Ethan.

And kpow, I know, the pages are glorious pieces of art, as evidenced by Mike and Charlie's living room walls. =)