In radio, the way to end a show is to spare your audience the tearful goodbye and simply plug the next DJ. After all, what's goodbye for you isn't a milestone for listeners -- they're going to drive their cars, go on with their workdays and listen whether you're there or not -- it's just the way it works. tableau, too, will go on as usual. I couldn't be prouder to hand over the red pen to staffers who are so capable. This will continue to be a quality section and our readership will grow with new editors at the helm.
Yet, I'm finding it a little more difficult than I'd expected to sign off with cool panache. (Not that I could, what with the elaborate "A Final Goodbye" spread covering a third of the first page -- doesn't exactly indicate "breezy nonchalance.")
tableau has been many things to me over the past year: a responsibility, an inspiration, a headache, a lot of fun, and, recently, my redemption as I enter the job market, where journalism experience will make the difference between a diet of filet or ramen noodles.
Thing is, I've already said farewell to college -- my diploma is rolled in a furniture-less corner of an apartment I can't afford, I can no longer swipe a card wired to my parents' funds to buy lattes and I'm a little less daring in crosswalks knowing my health insurance has expired. (I'm still pretty f**king ballsy, though.)
Looking back at my year with tableau is a lot like looking back at college -- there are proud accomplishments, amazing moments, and some failures and regrets.
One of my main goals with this section was to improve the quality and depth of the writing. Did it work out? Well, the archives of tableau in its infancy aren't available online but, trust me...you wouldn't want to read them anyway. tableau has emerged from being mere ink on a page to become a thoughtful, entertaining section that I will gladly pass on to a staff of capable, professional student journalists.
Yet, I have a few reservations with calling the year a total success. While we were certainly able to fulfill our minimal journalistic duties of producing copy on deadline, high goals can get buried under a stack of press packets and phone messages. I wish I'd found more time to turn every member of the staff into a go-get-'em, hit-the-streets reporter. Sticky situations could have been avoided if more time were invested in teaching tableau staffers to be journalists first, snappy writers and critics second. In that vein, I'd like to see less commentary, more coverage, less "I," more focus on readers.
Our staff can best use its expertise to help people make sense of the art that's happening around them in Charlottesville -- it's the one thing only we can provide to the U.Va. community.
I was discussing college with a friend of mine who said he'd do it all over again if he could know then what he knows now. I think I'll have to disagree. Though the "should haves" may always nag, in the words of A-Ha, it's no better to be safe than sorry. I'd do tableau and college again even without everything I've learned.
And now, wow ... how many college grads get to officially say goodbye to a readership of 10,000? To tableau readers, thanks for reading. To the Cav. Daily, thanks for the terrific opportunity. To my co-editor, thanks for your creativity and dedication -- I couldn't have made it without you. To the staff, thanks thanks thanks for making it easy. And, to my colleagues and friends at The University, thanks for making my life.
In her last tableau letter from the editor, this is Meg McEvoy, signing off. Take it away, guys.
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