It is slowly starting to hit me that it is all coming to an end.
I have one more year left at UNC and I want to spend it with my friends, laughing, dreaming, focusing on personal projects and most importantly — living a life outside of The Daily Tar Heel office.
Two years in the grand scheme of things is not a lot, but when it comes to college, that is half of your academic career. Two years behind these brick walls. They hold laughter, tears and so many words.
Sitting in our penultimate staff meeting, it is slowly starting to hit me (sorry, Emmy).
I won’t be the DTH design editor next year. I will just be Olivia. Someone who has a passion for graphic design but doesn’t know if she wants to make a career out of it. Someone who has passed the torch into unbelievably capable hands. Someone who has made the Design desk her own, and hopefully has done it well.
Before The DTH, I struggled with finding a community. I had my friends, but I was unsatisfied. I didn’t know what I wanted or who I wanted to be.
Joining the newsroom has been an eye-opening experience. I got to meet people with a passion for something outside themselves, a need to serve and a love for the same things as me. I have found a family here. I have found myself.
Being a journalist isn’t easy. Some might say I’m not a journalist, but, let me tell you, editorial design is a very specific niche. I have been struggling with the idea that I won’t ever have to explain what P-9 is or how to use the pen tool on Illustrator again, but my journalist days are over.
When someone asks me why I love my job, my answer is always the people. If I could bottle up a moment and keep it with me, it would be the newsroom on print nights. In these hours filled with giggles and jokes that could definitely get us in trouble, I have experienced some of the happiest moments of my life here.
