Written by Emma Jones
After four long, wonderful, challenging, beneficial years, my time with The Bison is coming to an end.
I struggled deciding what to write about for my last column — do I write like normal and not acknowledge the closing of this chapter of my life, or the equivalent of a sappy graduation speech detailing what a wonderful Harding experience I had? I’m hoping to land somewhere in the middle here.
If I could tell 18-year-old Emma that she ended up as the editor-in-chief of The Bison, I think she’d be surprised. I chose to major in journalism on a whim at the end of my senior year of high school because I liked reading and editing, and it sounded interesting. I only joined the newspaper staff my freshman year after not getting in a club. I’ve worked an assortment of different positions on staff, some of them invented just for me to stay involved after the study abroad trip I was signed up for got canceled and moved three separate times.
Though my experience working for The Bison hasn’t been typical, I’ve been so grateful for the variety of positions I’ve been able to fill and the experiences I’ve had — not to mention the various Harding-funded trips to journalism conferences across the country. Though I decided my major without giving much thought to it, I’ve truly found a passion for journalism, and I have The Bison to thank for that.
For my younger peers, my word of advice is to get involved. Your Harding experience is truly what you make it. There are many different ways to get plugged in around campus and the community, and taking advantage of those will make your experience here worthwhile and memorable. I hope for some of you that involvement is with Student Publications. For the rest of you, I hope you continue looking forward to future editions of The Bison and the Petit Jean.
Now to the sappy acknowledgments of the people who made Harding worth it. You can skip this part, if you want, because it gets a little embarrassing after this.
To Joshua, my fiancè, thank you for your support the last four years and your confidence in my ability to serve in this position. I love you.
To Mrs. Fatula, our Student Publications adviser, I’m honored to call you both a mentor and a friend. Thank you for your constant encouragement.
To my Bison staff, especially to my head copy editor Gabriel Huff, it’s been a pleasure working with you all, and I can’t wait to see what you do in the future.
To Kayleigh Tritschler, my fellow editor-in-chief, thanks for being my travel buddy this year and for keeping me sane while dealing with deadlines. Shameless plug here to everyone else reading — pick up your yearbook next week! Kayleigh literally slayed, and it’s also free, so why wouldn’t you get one?
To the members of Knights and Pi Theta Phi, thank you for the support and endless laughs. GGK!
To Camille Smith, thank you for being the best roommate I could have asked for these past three years and for always doing my dishes.
To the Communications Department, thanks for teaching me everything I know.
To Dr. Williams and Dr. T, thanks for making my job easier when I had to write hard news stories. Great work this year.
And finally to my successor, Tiane Davis, you’re going to do wonderful. I’m already so proud of you and can’t wait to see what you do.
That may not have been exactly ten thousand words, but I think it’s pretty close.
XOXO, Madame Editor.
