“Last week you got to read my walk down memory lane and my heartfelt congratulations to the University of Akron for giving me an unforgettable undergraduate experience. However, I barely talked about my experience at the Buchtelite-or my mixed emotions about leaving.”
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Last week you got to read my walk down memory lane and my heartfelt congratulations to the University of Akron for giving me an unforgettable undergraduate experience.

However, I barely talked about my experience at the Buchtelite-or my mixed emotions about leaving.

I’ll definitely be sad. I’ll miss the weekly Wednesday rush to drum up enough emotion about a certain topic to write a column about it. I’ll miss the whirlwind dash to finish a story before the copy editors fall asleep and Ken Torisky’s tentative voice whenever I’m trying hose the University of Akron for something. And I know I’ll miss the incredible feeling of knowing that I have the ablility to change something about UA.

At the same time, it’s hard to forget the days where I woke up and immediately wished that I didn’t have the guts to write a controversial article that was now sitting on the front page of the Buchtelite, threatening to haunt me from Thursday through Monday. It was definitely uncomfortable, walking through campus with the feeling that everyone was staring at me, judging me for what I strategically pounded out half an hour before my class started.

Overall, however, it’s been a great experience. I met Madeline Albright and Chelsea Clinton. I was just feet away from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I even gave Kal Penn my number, at one point (he didn’t return the favor). I was able to speak about one of the subjects I feel most strongly about, Sri Lanka, and give an alternative point of view. By being forced to see all sides of an argument, whether I wanted to or not, I was able to grow and improve as a writer-and hopefully as a person.

I want to thank the various editors in chief during the past two years at the Buchtelite, Adam Ferrise and Dillon Deshong, as well as the news editors, Joe Habbyshaw and Allison Strouse, for putting up with incessant nagging and my unsolicited need to prove my point to them (as if the rest of the UA wasn’t enough). Our advisor, Bruce Zake, also deserves a round of applause for, well, everything he’s been through at the Buchtelite.

Finally, I want to thank you for reading my column and giving me your opinion, positive or (more often) negative. Receiving reader feedback is the point of writing, and it makes me extremely happy to know that my writing has often sparked some type of emotion within the community.

It’s been a pleasure writing for the Buchtelite.

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