I stumbled upon The Daily Texan when I was on a scavenger hunt with my First-Year Interest Group in fall 2011.Then the basement I’ve come to call home was just another stop on our checklist of hidden College of Communication gems. When my group finally located the office, the managing editor at the time asked us if we were interested in a job in the newly formed web department.

Knowing I had absolutely no experience with web, for some reason, I scribbled my name down on the list anyway. Maybe it was the rush of the scavenger hunt. Maybe it was my natural tendency to want to always say “yes” to nice people. Maybe it was fate.

As a freshman, I was in awe of what students working hard together could produce day in and day out at the Texan. I admired the professional quality of the work that was being done so much that I couldn’t believe that the leaders of each department were only a couple years older than me. Through the years, that feeling of awe didn’t fade in the slightest. Even now that I am one of those leaders and I call those upperclassmen my peers, I am still absolutely mesmerized by the work that is produced by students here every day.

I know now that everyone was just as clueless as I was when I walked in the door, but, somehow, we all figured it out together. 

It’s not just the skills you learn that empower you to go on to do great things after the Texan. It is the huge community of peers, professional staff and alumni that believe in you before you even believe in yourself. For them, I am eternally grateful. 

This isn’t goodbye. No one ever really says goodbye to the Texan. This is an awkward wave and a “see you later,” the only gesture I can muster up because the time to leave has come all too soon, and I know I’ll never really find the words to describe how much The Daily Texan completely changed my life.

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