I\u00a0swiped away the notification that had popped up on my screen from Facebook saying I had memories with my cousin Robann Brown \u201cto look back on today,\u201d March 28, and was surprised when it opened anyway. An old status from Robann sat on my screen, and I laughed as I scrolled past it looking at the next memory. My slight smile suddenly felt bittersweet as I read the words that high school me had posted that day in 2012 at 7:49 a.m. It said, in all caps, \u201cI made newspaper.\u201d I had added three exclamation points, two smiley faces made out of punctuation and a \u201cYay.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve worked on a student publications staff every year since then. Working on the newspaper staff was my favorite part of high school. Even though the younger members repeatedly asked me to, I never came back to visit after graduation. It wasn\u2019t because I didn\u2019t want to or because I just forgot all about them. I didn\u2019t come back to visit because I knew how badly I missed being in that room. I knew how much it would hurt for me to see them again and know that I was no longer a part of the team. Soon, all the familiar faces started to disappear as new names filled the staff list. At that point, I decided there was no point in stopping by the office during my spring break anyway.<\/p>\n
When I sat down with the adviser of The Bison earlier this week to explain why I wouldn\u2019t be coming back to staff next year, she was extremely encouraging and understanding. She told me I could come by and visit whenever I wanted, and that I\u2019m always welcome in the office. She said once you become a part of Stu Pubs, you\u2019re a part of this forever.<\/p>\n
It felt reminiscent of the last conversation I had with Ms. Sorrows, my high school newspaper adviser. She told all of that year\u2019s seniors that we would go on to do great things and to remember that the journalism room would always be our home. I learned really quickly that the things I learned in that room would stick with me forever, but I hadn\u2019t realized that the people I worked with would be just as influential as the lessons they taught me. I\u2019m relearning that now with The Bison staff.<\/p>\n
When I changed my major from journalism to social work sophomore year, I didn\u2019t think twice about staying on staff, because it\u2019s always been a part of who I am. When I visit extended family members or talk to the people at church, they usually always ask me how it\u2019s going with the paper before anything else. That\u2019s kind of my identifier with most people \u2014 I\u2019m the kid who writes for the newspaper.<\/p>\n
Knowing that I will be letting go of something that has been such a huge part of my life for the past six years really scares me.<\/p>\n
I visited my high school\u2019s online newspaper to reread the last column I ever wrote for The Prospective. It was about how my love for journalism had developed over those three years in high school. I wrote, \u201cSuddenly, I became fascinated with the stories that my peers had been harboring. I felt more comfortable with a reporter\u2019s notebook and recorder in hand than I did at home in my favorite pair of sweatpants.\u201d<\/p>\n
I can see how that love for journalism transitioned into social work. After talking to the Student Publications adviser, I felt more secure about my decision. She reminded me how the skills I learned from newspaper will lend to my future career in social work. She reminded me that I\u2019ll still be hearing people\u2019s stories and using those interview skills.<\/p>\n
My point in sharing this is that, even when you recognize that it\u2019s necessary or for the best, it can be really hard to let go and move forward. This can apply to friendships, hobbies and even some dreams. So, when you have to let go, remember that those lessons will stay with you. I\u2019ve grown a lot during my time with the newspaper staff and those experiences are a part of me now, with or without this job. It\u2019s definitely hard to think about letting go, but I know now that I\u2019ll keep my promise to visit. And I won\u2019t need Facebook to remind me of these memories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u00a0swiped away the notification that had popped up on my screen from Facebook saying I had memories with my cousin Robann Brown \u201cto look back on today,\u201d March 28, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14924,"featured_media":9250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14924"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}