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 had been with Texas Student Television for more than three years when I met The Daily Texan.

I wasn’t unhappy with my relationship with TSTV, but I also was getting curious about what other opportunities were available at Texas Student Media. After working at the Austin American-Statesman and The Wall Street Journal, I wanted to write for my University’s campus newspaper, but I didn’t want to cheat on TSTV. TSTV had been so faithful to me, but one day I just decided to sneak away from the fourth floor of the HSM and wander into the basement of The Daily Texan.

And I don’t regret my straying one bit.

During my brief stint at the Texan, I honed in my passion for reporting like never before. When my editor gave me the campus beat, I didn’t realize I would stay so busy. There’s so much that has happened on this campus in the last semester. Some of it happy, some of it painfully sad, but it was a privilege and a responsibility of mine to report the news to the student community.

Previously, I was allotted minutes or seconds to a story at TSTV. In broadcast, it’s hard to go very in-depth into
reporting without getting more time budgeted. Through print reporting, though, the written words and 18-inch stories carried weight that was hard to carry in a 90-second video story. My sources would add texture to stories in written form that I could only show with images in broadcast. Which is more powerful? I’m not sure, but luckily I love both.

You’d think being on TV would give a journalist instant gratification for their work, but there’s nothing that made me more proud than when I would walk by an orange Daily Texan newsstand and see my byline from a few feet away.

I am thankful for the talented journalists I met while at The Daily Texan. Without my editors pushing me to dig deeper into stories, I’m not sure if they would have made enough impact. Some stories make a lot of noise, but as a journalist you want stories to make a difference.

The role of being a student journalist is a thankless job. Some people don’t take you seriously because you’re still a “kid in college,” but I encourage all future Texas Student Media members to be relentless in their reporting. We have a responsibility to inform our student community and hold administrators accountable.

I’m not sure if you’ll find me on print, television or wherever. But one thing is true though: News will
always be the love that’s never failed me.

-30-