Last week, several people asked me if I was going to write a sappy farewell column today. Now I've never been accused in my young career of writing anything "sappy" and I've been accused of a lot, but today I may break that streak.?
I may break my sap-free streak because today will be the last day The Daily Helmsman bears my name. A few days from now, I'll be graduating and will hopefully be on my way to some kind of job. That's why we are all here, right? But even as I move on to the next stage of my life, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't with a heavy heart. When I started at The Helmsman, my goal was to write articles and meet deadline but in the end I found a purpose, a calling.?
I've always believed God speaks to us through events in our lives. Nothing spoke louder to me then the issues of students.?
It seemed illogical to me that students could be asked to fund so much of The University's budget but be so seldom asked how that money should be spent and where.?
But a calling in journalism isn't exactly easy and being editor of a student publication isn't exactly always a popular position.?
But in my mind a popular journalist is usually a bad journalist.?
In a profession where most of your time is spent explaining what people did wrong, you are generally going to rub some the wrong way.?
Administrators don't usually take too kindly to a 23-year-old kid who rarely shaves and carries a subpar GPA and sits in his office demanding to know why student fees are being raised.?
Who am I to be so bold as to ask what the International Experience fee is for?
Who am I to ask for more books in the library and a pedestrian bridge over Central and Southern?
I've been asked that, in some form or another, many times, and I feel that my last words in the paper that I've worked so hard to improve should answer such questions.?
I truly believe that one can love The University of Memphis as much as one can love an institution and still stand up for improvement.?
One can still ask for the truth, the real truth, and not be hell-bent on destroying the reputation of The U of M.?
If I could put my experience as an editor and reporter here at The Helmsman for the last few years into words, I'd say that every single day was a fight against the idea that students do not want to and are not prepared to understand some of the negative aspects of the institutions they chose to attend.?
Our University has a way of sugar-coating a crisis, and I don't mind asking for the unsweetened version.?
Students aren't told that enrollment is down, they are told honor's enrollment is up.?
Students aren't told that student fees are going up, they are told about all the great things The U of M is going to? build with students' money.?
Students aren't told that a basketball player, who was kicked off the team for beating up his girlfriend, has been allowed back on the team to add depth to the team, they are told he's back on the team because he got his life together.?
Students aren't told that a woman jogging on campus was sexually assaulted, they are told almost a week later that a woman who was not a student was accosted.
But that's what The Helmsman is here for, and that's what I've been so proud to be a part of.?
?So many stories, so many extremely pissedoff e-mails. But in the end, what makes The Helmsman worth it, what makes it worth the grief, are the students who read it everyday.?
Thank you for all the e-mails, all the compliments, all the criticisms.?
It's been a pleasure.
