I applied to the copy department my first semester at UT because I didn’t think I was good enough to write for the Texan. I had never done journalism in high school and it all seemed so daunting to me. I told myself copy would be a good way to get the lay of the land, and to strengthen the skills I already had in grammar and spelling, but really I was just afraid of applying for a writing department and not getting in. Or worse — getting in but not being able to do the job.
In my year of copy, I read and edited stories one night a week, often from my dorm room bed because the paper hadn’t moved back to total in-person production yet. I loved copy and the people I met there, and I learned a lot about AP style that has served me well, but I didn’t truly feel like I was part of the paper.
Seven semesters, four departments and over 50 bylines later, the Texan has become a transformative space for me. I went from copy editing one night a week to writing one story a week, then two a week, then three a week (I still don’t know why anyone let me be a news senior reporter and a life&arts general reporter in the same semester). Last fall I started editing again, but this time as the associate projects editor, and now as the department head.
Some of it feels the same. I’m still editing from my bed a lot of the time. But I couldn’t be more different, and I have the Texan to thank for that. I still hadn’t written a story when I finally applied for news my sophomore year, but there was no room for doubt once I was in the department — the deadlines started coming and they didn’t stop, and the editors had full faith that you would come through with the story (or at least acted like they did).
Every story I worked on for news and life&arts made me a better, more confident reporter, and my first story compared to my last seems like night and day. When I became associate projects editor, I saw it as a way to give back to the Texan. I could use everything I had learned in my five semesters and three departments thus far to help make other reporters’ stories the best they could be.
Thank you to everyone who has edited me in copy, news and life&arts, who have improved my writing with every unnecessary comma removed. Thank you to every projects reporter I’ve had the privilege to work with — each of your stories inspires me and I learn from you every time I edit. And thank you to all of my friends in news who make the Basement a joyful place to be, even on deadline.
Every semester Peter ends orientation by telling us that we could find our closest friends at the Texan if we put our all into it. For a while, I didn’t really believe him, but what’s funny is that he ended up being exactly right — the Texan brought me two of my best friends, who inspire me to be a better journalist and person, so thank you to them too.
I find “You get out of it what you put into it” a very cliche phrase, but it’s true for the Texan. Even if it doesn’t happen immediately, stick around for a while. You never know what you’ll get to do, who you’ll meet or who you’re going to be once you finally leave the Basement.