After a long road to graduation, this editor is signing off

Alissa Thielges
Staff Writer

Well, this is it—the end is in sight. My career as a student is coming to a close.

I just picked up my graduation cap and gown today. Yesterday, I picked up my honor cords. Sometime next week I will be finishing up my last finals of college. All too quickly, this is becoming very real. In nine days, I will be graduating from college. Scary.

As I think back on my college days, I can’t but already feel nostalgic towards to the memories that I’ve made. The floor events I attended in Crawford that made my transition to college a little less lonely. The weird girl on my floor with a similar enthusiasm for anything Disney and Marvel, who has become one of my best college friends. The long hours studying and working on assignments—and the even longer hours procrastinating on said work. Finding my favorite studying spot in the library. Attending football and hockey games with friends. Netflix marathons and Disney song jam sessions. Moving into my first apartment. Writing my first article. Becoming News Editor at the MSU Reporter. Getting an internship at a publishing company and the excitement of working in the field I someday desire to be in.

All these moments lead up to the big day on May 5. I’m not going to lie—this past year has probably been one of the most stressful and draining of the four I have spent at MNSU. Mostly of my own doing. I stretched myself a bit too far once again and I am looking forward to some time off. (You know it’s bad when finals week is less stressful than your normal schedule.)

My time at MNSU has taught me a lot of things, but I would say that is the time spent outside of the classroom that has made the biggest impact. College isn’t just about the classes you take or the GPA you graduate with (though there were a few moments along the way where I definitely needed to be reminded of that fact.)

I’m forever going to remember my days spent at the Reporter. I never saw myself as a journalist and still don’t believe that is the profession I am cut out for. However, the skills I developed and honed as a staff writer will always be useful for me, in ways that I’m only just realizing. Working for the paper is more than writing stories and hunting down leads; you learn to work on a deadline, to prioritize, to work with others and collaborate. You make connections with people you may have never talked to otherwise. You start to see things from other’s perspective more easily and come to realize that there is always more than one side of a story.

Working at the campus newspaper has helped me to get out of my comfort zone and has taught me the value of looking at things from different angles. Your first approach won’t always work, but that doesn’t mean you give up. And even the crappiest draft can be worked into something worth reading.

These are things that can’t really be taught in a classroom and I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunity to have learned them first hand in an academic setting where trial and error are the bread and butter for the makings of something great.

Photo: (Mansoor Ahmad/MSU Reporter)