My first day as copy desk chief went poorly.

I was proud of the paper that day. I thought it would print free of errors, but then I woke up to texts asking if I knew the difference between “freshman” and “freshmen.”

I looked at the dom headline: Mooov-In welcomes freshman

Not the thousands of first years who had recently started college. Just one.

As is the case with most things I’ve done at the Texan, someone (everyone) roasted me, and it stuck. My friends will likely never let it rest. They’re my favorite people.

Slan, thank you for encouraging me to try out for copy. I owe you everything.

Peyton, Sarah, Katie — New York will be the best adventure. Please go to Yankee Stadium with me.

Nicole, Paul, London — you’re great reporters who make me feel like I know something about journalism. Alex, you’re a badass social media queen.

Thank you, Photo Kings. Carlos, I like our sad playlist. I love that we don’t listen to it as much as we used to. Gabe, you will be a great physical therapist. But you really need to learn how to stop me from draining a three right in your face. Thank you both for showing me friendship when I didn’t quite think I deserved it.

To my Thursday Crew, thank you. Keshav and Mireya, the JoBros have nothing on us. Catherine, you’re the nastiest person I know, and you deserve your bird. You’ll be legendary in the fall. Thanks for making good copy logs since Forrest, who makes me laugh until my “Ribs” get tough, never learned how.

I have my copy family: Irissa, Lawson, Minnah and DQ, rockstars who deserve every word of affirmation; Taylor, my Grey’s sister; Jason, my meme-making friend; Brittany, the most trustworthy person I know; Jimena, my one true super trouper; Haylee, who has the best judgment of vibrations. Thanks for all the shit-talking (one word, hyphenated).

I have sports bros: Alex, my favorite ping-pong partner; Drew, who shares my love for Sandra; Ross, a Bucky Barnes enthusiast and my personal critic; Donnavan, who is almost always wrong but makes late-night editing worth it; Robert, the nicest human I know. Here’s to writing and lawyering in the future. Do y’all even know when deadline is?

Ellie, you’ve been my rock. Thanks for the basketball, long cries and sarcasm. More importantly, thanks for all the car rides — especially that one to the ER. We need to stop going to the ER.

Vanessa, you suck at ping-pong but have a knack for twisting Astros slogans. Thank you for every awful joke and for being my favorite sports bro. You are my best friend.

Andrea, you were my first real friend at UT and the paper. Thanks for taking that SURE Ride with me. You, and your never-ending support (and wine and popcorn), made this a place worth coming back to.

And finally, to the freshmen, I’m sorry. I hope you all had a good first year. Here’s to an even better sophomore year.

At least there’s no way to mess that headline up.