The outgoing Managing Editor. Photo provided by author
My time at The Daily Campus can really be summed up as a series of polar opposites.
It’s felt like forever since I stumbled, late, into my first News meeting, but also it feels like everything after that went by so quickly.
I’ve had some of my happiest moments in the DC building, and yet I’ve also had some of my darkest.
I came to the University of Connecticut without the knowledge that we had a newspaper, and now I’m leaving it having contributed to every section, having copy edited, designed, served on the board of directors for three years and, last but not least, having had the privilege of being managing editor for this past year.
To anyone I’ve ever crossed paths with at the DC, thank you for everything. It’s truly incredible that we all manage to produce a newspaper every single day of the semester. If you don’t put that into perspective for yourself enough, please pat yourself on the back — we all decide to temporarily put aside classes, other clubs and all the other responsibilities just to make these papers for everyone, and we somehow succeed in doing so every time.
Looking back, some of the numbers associated with this job are staggering.
I’ve been managing editor for the creation of 140 issues — that means that we made over 300,000 newspapers together this year.
I’ve written over 130 articles in my time at the DC, which is more than 65,000 words — personally, I don’t really understand how that happened. I used to tell everyone that I hated writing and somehow I guess I proved myself wrong.
Most importantly, however, I’ve met some of the coolest people I could ever imagine meeting while working at the DC. Everyone that puts their blood, sweat and tears into this organization is truly awesome, and I’m going to miss you all so dearly. Luckily, I’m sure that I’ll keep in touch with as many people as possible, but I’m still going to miss all of us descending on the little brick building night after night to crank out another issue.
Despite these quantitative and qualitative accomplishments, my time here has not been perfect. To those carrying on after I leave, I urge you to do better than me, and I know you can.
At the end of the day, it’s all about being a human being first. As I mentioned before, the numerical achievements are certainly impressive, but please don’t let all of that get in the way of treating everyone right (including yourself, which is a big one). If a day goes by and a paper doesn’t get made, but someone that would’ve been upset is happy instead, that’s a total win in my book. If a story takes an extra day to go to print so that it can be the writer’s best work, and so that it serves the community as much as possible, that’s also a win.
For everyone working at the DC, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on keeping yourself sane, keeping others comfortable and just try your best to always do the right thing and keep an open ear for anyone that needs to talk about things.
In the end, if you couldn’t tell already, I’m really burnt out. I have loved much of my time here in this organization, but I know that it is my time to leave. I’ve really appreciated everything the DC has given me, and I’m still shocked that the little boy whose favorite movie as a kid was “Newsies” actually ended up running production for a newspaper.
Before I close, I’d like to make one last comment. As the people who make The Daily Campus, we have full agency to make it whatever we want. So please, don’t just settle for being stewards of a brand, keeping it working and then passing it off to the next year’s crop. Make the DC what you want it to be, because then you’ll be truly proud of what you’ve made.
