Editor's note: A 30 column is a chance for departing permanent staff to say farewell and reflect on their time spent in The Daily Texan’s basement office. The term comes from the old typesetting mark (-30-) to denote the end of a line.

I remember my very first piece for the Texan was a retrospective man-on-the-street, where I went out on the Communication Plaza and asked strangers about 9/11. It was in September of 2011, on the anniversary of the attacks, and the idea of presenting such a piece in a proper light wasn’t nearly as nerve-racking as the prospect of approaching strangers with a video camera. Twenty months later and I’ve literally jumped at the idea, almost eschewing news pieces entirely in favor of sitting down with people and talking about their jobs. If I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t think there’s a single thing on my resume that I’m as proud of as my title of senior videographer at the Texan. When I joined the newspaper, very few people even knew there was a video department, but I’ve been given so many fantastic opportunities through the Texan that people actively ask me how to join for the next semester. As excited as I am to graduate from UT and move to Los Angeles, I wish there was some way for me to pack up all of the Texan in a suitcase and bring it with me — I’d even gladly deal with the inevitable TSA hell storm that would result from me smuggling an entire building of wonderful people onto a plane.

-30-