My last flight with The Eagle

Ya know, for all the time I’ve had to think about what to write in this final column I’ve
still got nothing. I have spent the past three and a half years contemplating what I would write
when the time came. Would I be sad? Happy? Maybe angry? And yet, here I am sitting on the
floor of my living room late Monday evening unable to come up with any of those feelings.
So, I guess I’ll just start at the beginning and hope I can conjure something up as I go.
When I came to school here, I had no idea what to expect. I had come here on a whim
after months of believing I was destined for UNK. The Eagle’s adviser Mr. K had convinced me
to make the switch by promising an editor position, money and a jumpstart on my future career
(I’m still not sure whether he’ll be right about that part, we’ll have to check back in on that in
several years.)
When I came to my first Tuesday meeting, I wasn’t sure I belonged in an editor position
or should be the one taking over the paper by my junior year. I was in a room full of experienced,
amazing journalists and photographers that had won numerous amounts of awards and thought
that I would fall short. I truly believed that by the end of my first week they would tell me that I
wasn’t quite ready for the responsibility that came with the news editor position.
Thankfully, those people stuck by me as I jumped into the deep end of working for a
college newspaper, helping me learn how to wade through the world of college journalism until I
was pretty much self-sufficient.
There are still times where I worry that I’m not the writer that the paper was hoping for
when it recruited me my senior year of high school. But even if I’m not, I know that I have
grown and become better than I was when I started. And that’s good enough for me right now.
While the long Wednesday nights, stressful stories and aggravating meetings have
sometimes made this paper the bane of my existence, I can’t help but be grateful for it at the

same time. It has led me to creating amazing friendships with people I never would’ve met
without it.
To the editors and reporters, both past and present, that I’ve had a chance to work with,
thank you for making the last three and a half years some of the wildest, emotional and fun years
of my life. I couldn’t have become the person that I am today without you guys. I am incredibly
thankful that I had the chance to work and become friends with you. I know that, when I look
back on my time here at CSC, it won’t be the work that I remember. It’ll be you guys.
I’m jumping off into the deep end once again and God I hope I learn to swim just like I
did three and a half years ago. I’m off to my next great adventure and am beyond excited for
what comes next. But first, I have to say one final thank you. To The Eagle, thank you for
making my decision to come to Chadron meaningful. I couldn’t have made it through college
without you.

And, if I learned one thing its that, while the world burns The Eagle soars.