I like to describe my time at The Daily Campus as a constant case of being in the right place, at the right time — all the time. I first started working here my sophomore year as a copy editor because my parents kept calling me saying that I “needed a job” and that I need to “stop spending money” and that the really cool, useful and awesome stuff that I was buying was “stupid as hell,” or something like that. But I opened up JobX (R.I.P.) and low and behold, the copy editor job was the first thing on the list. I thought it would be fun to work at the newspaper since I worked on my middle school’s newspaper (It was more of an eight-ish page packet made up of printer paper, rather than an actual newspaper (it also had a total runtime of like four weeks, but regardless)).
I ended up getting rejected from the copy editor job. But! A few days later, I got a message saying that they mixed up the emails and I was offered the position. Woo! Right place, right time. I’ve never worked a job like it before, sitting there from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m., next to some random dude reading through a 12-page newspaper over and over for four hours straight, trying to catch any mistakes. I had no clue what AP style was before stepping foot in that damn building. Apparently, my boss could smell that lack of knowledge on me. Because one night midway through my shift, she sits down and plainly tells me, “You weren’t actually supposed to be hired here.” What. “Yeah, the person we originally hired had declined.” Thank you, I needed to hear that at 11 p.m. after bombing an exam earlier that morning. But alas, right place, right time.
That random dude I was sitting next to from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. every Thursday ended up being the first friend I made at the DC: Ben Lassy! He was the Shaq to my Kobe when it came to copy editing. I also got to meet so many cool people and make so many friends during Thursday night’s production (If you’re reading this: What’s up!!). But there was always this one annoying kid that would fill in for every designer that called out sick on Thursdays. His haircut was also wack, it looked like he was one of those white dudes that’s suuuuuper into Japan.
That annoying kid with the weird haircut turned out to be Connor Lafferty, who wasn’t as annoying as I thought but he was — unsurprisingly — super into Japan. He ended up becoming managing editor and also one of my closest friends, which meant he would also be my boss if I was a copy editor next year. So, I quit. Kidding, kidding, joke lang!! Kind of. I did stop being a copy editor, because I became a writer instead! I actually got my first article published while I was a copy editor. April 17, 2024, an article I’m still really proud of. Which ironically, I ended up writing because I was at the right party, at the right time. I hopped between Opinion and Life, before ending up with a column for the Life section, “ear 2 da sky,” after getting lunch with Ben who was the life editor at the time. I brought up the idea of my column because we were talking about music (as we tended to do), and he was immediately on board. Right place, right time.
Fast forward a bit and now I’m business manager of The Daily Campus. I was a little worried about my minimal involvement compared to others at the DC and how it would affect my ability to help lead. But luckily, I somehow got onto the most stacked executive board ever. Ky’Lynn Monts and Connor Lafferty both returning for a second year and Karla Perez, who has worked almost every job you could possibly work at The Daily Campus. Right place, right time.
But I write this final entry with a sinking feeling: Is this finally one of those wrong place, wrong time situations? I’m leaving — only to be a memory in the deep history of The Daily Campus. Soon to be just a name etched into the pixels of the About page on the website. But, with my time here, I’ve learned that it’s more than just legacy; it’s about the people you meet while trying to make one.
To all the people I’ve met and all my friends that I’ve made here, thank you for being in the right place, at the right time. Thank you to Lafferty, thank you to Ky’Lynn, thank you to Jenna, thank you to Karla, thank you to Colbi, thank you to Sharp. Thank you to Pierce, I know you’re going to do great as BM next year! Thank you to Dawn, Krista and Jose. Thank you to anyone I may have missed, thank you to whoever declined that copy editor job. Thank you to my dad and Nanay and of course thank you to my beautiful and insanely smart girlfriend, Mikayla, who I have complained to about work for hours at a time. Because without any of you, I’m not the version of me that I would be writing this today.