For the past three and a half years I have seen multiple members of The Pacer graduate, and I have read just as many senior farewells. However, as I sit here writing mine, I’m not really sure what to say, which many would say would be for the first time in my life. If you’ve read any of my articles then you know I have an issue with brevity, but I’m going to try and keep this short and sweet.
The first time I visited Martin, I immediately felt content. The campus felt like home and I knew this was where I needed to be. As a young photographer, I was encouraged to visit The Pacer office where the adviser promised me a job on staff as soon as I was officially a student on campus.
I’ve come quite a long way since my first assignment for The Pacer, or I’d at least like to think so, and I can’t believe it’s my turn to graduate. It’s fine.
In many ways, The Pacer has not only shaped the journalist I have become, but also the woman I have turned out to be. The sheer excitement and necessity of its existence has given me a purpose and an identity in my short time at UTM. Rarely have I been seen without a camera or notepad in my hand, fueled by the desire to record UTM’s history through the people who walk its campus.
Thank you to every person who allowed me to help tell their stories. The features I have written for The Pacer mean more to me than the subjects will ever know, and each one has influenced my being in some way. You have each encouraged me to be a better person and journalist, so thank you.
I would like to say thank you to each of my Communications and History professors. You’ve each encouraged my love for journalism and history and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have learned from each of you. I might even be thankful for my broadcast classes with the ever-sarcastic Mr. Rodney Freed, even though I never alluded to that in class.
To my dearest Tomi Mc, there will never be enough words to tell you how thankful I am for your constant guidance and influence in my life for these past five years. Thank you for taking a chance on that awkward 15-year-old who just wanted to be a photographer the first time she stepped foot into the newspaper office. I wish I had known in that moment just how important of a role you would play in my academic career and personal life.
I would not have become the journalist that I am today without your guidance. It is because of your constant support that I know I can make it in this industry.
Thank you for not firing me after I was tackled by two football players on the sidelines at the second game I covered my freshman year or when I unintentionally asked the chancellor if he was embezzling money (sorry Dr. Carver). I never imagined that I would one day become the Executive Editor, especially after those incidents, but you always believed in me.
Thank you for every counseling session and for always encouraging me to pursue my dreams regardless of how ridiculous they may have seemed. It may not feel like it at times, but you are truly making a difference in the lives of every Communications student you teach.
To The Pacer staff past and present, thank you for all of the countless hours of hard work put into every edition we published, the late night layouts that would have ended much earlier if we hadn’t gotten distracted by YouTube, the unfortunate laughter over morally questionable topics and all of the post-it notes that decorated my desk for three years. Thank you for allowing me to do life with you. You helped create a home for me in Pacer and I cannot wait to see each of you succeed in the various paths you take in life.
I now leave you with one final, crucial piece of advice for the future: “When we talk about things as necessary, we are talking about them as things which are required prior to those things which follow them.”
It’s always a great day to be a Skyhawk and long live the pen!
Photo Credit / Nathan Morgan
