I was by no means excited to attend N.C. State when I first got to campus my freshman year. I came in with a poor attitude of pomposity and regret that I didn’t get into UNC-Chapel Hill. Short story — I was an ungrateful little punk.
That all changed when I started working for Technician. I serendipitously showed up to the office on a Sunday night in September my sophomore year, and since then, I haven’t thought about leaving. It seems that circumstance, not choice, orders me to leave the place that has been home for me for the past three years. Though I’m excited to graduate and embark on a new chapter of my life — dental school — I realize I will truly miss the atmosphere of creativity, family and teamwork of Technician.
Working for Technician better acquainted me with student affairs, research and politics at the University, and getting involved with N.C. State made me mature from a little snot into a more humble and mindful person, or so I’d hope.
Being able to report on matters that affect students, higher education, N.C. State and our surrounding Raleigh community has exposed me to people of different walks of life, ways of thinking and supplied me with engaging learning opportunities outside of the classroom — and I am grateful for that. Though my grades in biochemistry and neurobiology might not reflect my natural interest in learning about how things work, Technician has been my outlet for exploration.
I believe that learning entails interaction and communication with people and ideas that I might not always agree with, and I would be leaving this University as a worse student — not grade-wise, but in terms of enrichment — without my experiences at Student Media. I have my colleagues, critics, advisers and sources to thank for that.
I admire what journalism stands for, but I’m not a journalism student. My majors are in biological sciences and Spanish, but I believe that journalism can be and should be learned outside of the classroom and in the field. With that come mistakes and lessons learned. I will be the first to admit to the mistakes I’ve made over the past three years, the misspelled headlines and the stories that I could have better sourced. But from these mistakes, I have a greater appreciation for accountability. The standards to which I hold those accountable — be it the governor, the chancellor or the student body president — apply to the work I do, and my editorship has humbled me.
Though I take my job at Technician seriously, I am the last to take myself seriously. Working from midday to midnight requires having a sense of humor, and some of the best laughs I’ve had at college were with Technician, whether it was editing a column by Ahmed Amer, playing practical jokes amid the rush of deadline, posing for photos in the nude in Chapel Hill (gotta love The Daily Tar Hell) or finding amusement in crappy circumstances. My advisers and colleagues taught me discipline, but also how to look on the bright side — an often overlooked aspect of journalism.
Through Technician, I found my place at the University, and though I’ve been the orchestrator of much scrutiny and criticism toward the administration and leaders of N.C. State, my motivations come from a place of care and pride. I am proud to represent N.C. State and to have served as the microphone of student concerns, but our University — though great — faces many challenges. Many of my critics consider me to be resentful of N.C. State, but I believe true school spirit entails acknowledging our shortcomings and committing ourselves to improving them. I haven’t been to many basketball or football games, and the frequent use of the word “wolf” on this campus gets on my nerves (Wolfcopy, Wolfprint, Wolf Village…), but I am proud to be a student here, and I will miss this place when I graduate in just a few days.
Looking back on the lessons I learned in college, I’m glad I can identify my former freshman self as a brat. To me, college is not about where you go, but rather what you end up doing while you’re there. I have Technician to thank.