FOR THE past year, I've known that I would eventually be writing a Parting Shot. It would be a column all my own -- 800 or so words to do whatever I pleased with. I could wield my parting shot like a bazooka and take out a few heads along the way. And throughout the year, when various human incarnations of Area 4 crossed my path, I thought to myself, "just you wait ..."
But now, as I sit here, Parting Shot in hand, I find it hard to summon the righteous anger, or even the mild annoyance, to deliver a body blow. As I look back on the past three-and-a-half years, at all the great and terrible things that happened, all I can feel is gratitude. I'm still coming to terms with the fact that my tenure at the Cav Daily is over, but I couldn't be more grateful that it happened.
People come down to The Cavalier Daily because they're interested in journalism; people stay down there because of the friends they find there. The Cavalier Daily wouldn't have ever become what it is to me without the fantastic people I've met in the basement.
To all the great people who have come before me, especially Leah, Kathleen, Maggie, Monika, Michelle, thanks for welcoming me into the Cav Daily family. Love and fascism.
To Margaret, who first came down to the office on the same day as me, and, like me, has a propensity for befriending people with the same name. To Maria, my fellow news dinosaur who I feel like I've known my entire Cav Daily life.
Thanks to the 118th staff, who made this year fantastic, Thanks especially to Laura, Mike and Andrew, who held everything together and even taught me prod. To Rob, who in spite of everything, still managed to put out a Comics page every day. To Courtney, Bailey and Maura who were always up for a walk to Starbucks when I was feeling stressed. To Andy for always making me laugh and for bringing Arch's. To Jordan, who taught me everything about being an OM and came down to the office every time I had a problem at 4 a.m.
To the new MB: I'm sure you're going to do a fantastic job. Elizabeth, I hope you love the 119th even more than you did us. Daniel I see from the first two papers that the ledit couldn't be in any better hands. Kristin, if I ever see a spelling error on the front page I'm going to have to start a search party because I'll know you're lying dead in a ditch somewhere. Steve, I know the paper's finances will only become more stable under your care, but it's a pity that money can't buy me love -- or can it?Andrew, you're a huge disappointment -- you didn't re-link Jefferson on the masthead and the sports page credits were in the wrong font. Just kidding, I know you'll be the best OM ever. I wish you a year without jams in Area 4 or brash young designers who insist on downloading every illegal font they use.
Whenever I was asked how I could possibly spend 50 hours per week working at the Cav Daily, I always replied that it was less of an activity and more of a lifestyle. I changed the way I ate, the way I slept, and where I came when I was done with classes. But I couldn't maintain my newsprint-rich lifestyle all by myself. There are some people who I literally wouldn't have gotten through the year without.
First off, my roommate Leah, who first encouraged me to work for the Cav Daily and told me that if I ended up having a job that made me stay down in the office all the time, she would come down and bring me food. And to my other wonderful roommates, Christine, Eliah, Jessie and Jen, who put up with my messiness, my propensity to eat their food and my overall MIA-dom.
Thanks to Ashley Simpson, who somehow by (almost) freaking out helped me keep it all together. And because when I did flip out, you were the only one awake for 3 a.m. drives to 7-eleven.
Thank you to the Aerospace Engineers class of 2008, comrades-in-arms through what seriously must be some of the hardest classes at this school. To any of you who have worked in a group with me, this job often meant I was a day late and a dollar short -- thanks for putting up with me. To Steve and Rogers (editors please note that this is not a typo, his name really ends in an 's') and especially to Libby Croft, who might be the single greatest reason I haven't failed out of school yet. I've often said that I am going to get this degree if it kills me, thanks for seeing that it hasn't yet.
Most importantly, I want to thank the other members of my MB, Elizabeth, Caroline, Dan and Herb. We were coalition forces fighting for democracy (and against Liberty). There really aren't any words that would sum up everything we've been through. If there were, I'd get Dan to write them, Herb to edit out the superfluous adjectives, Elizabeth to excise the unnecessary commas, and Caroline to change them for factual accuracy. But it doesn't really matter considering that, if Herb has his way, by the time these words hit newsstands we'll be halfway to Alabama.
And finally, thank you to all the people I thought I was going to take out with my parting shot. To the classifieds, ahem, buyers who taught me not to sweat the small stuff. To the lackluster taggers who made me learn patience. To the protesters, the letter-writers, the dissenters, and the complainers, who have shown me what I was really made of. When the dust is settled and the job is done, all I can feel is gratitude.
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