On Wednesdays sophomore year, I woke up with the sun and ran down the dorm stairs in my pajamas before my roommate was awake.
It didn’t matter if it was raining or freezing, I made it to the blue box across from the Morrison basketball court. As Caroline’s alarm went off, I was up at my desk flipping through the weekly paper’s pages, looking for my story. I read it all the way through, cut it out and taped it to my wardrobe door. By December, some stories overlapped and the clippings had faded from the sunlight. When we moved out of that dorm, I moved the pieces to a small folder, except for one.
My first print story is framed on my desk. I’ve read over it often, like when I was panicking about election coverage and needed to ground myself, when I was kicking myself for a bad day of reads or when I just needed a reminder of how far I’ve come.
When I started writing at The Daily Tar Heel, I knew nothing about journalism. During my first interview, my hands shook and I stumbled over my words. I was also terrified of being in the office. I didn’t know any of the other City & State writers and I had too many questions that I was too nervous to ask.
When I became editor, I wanted the desk to feel different. From what I can see, it’s getting there.
Kristin and Taylor did trivia together last week, Ha Lien shared a book recommendation and Jessica drove Brantley to an interview. I know that Sarah C. loves Dance Moms, James is now really passionate about tooth decay because of his first story and Defne prefers the Helvetica font. I feel so at home driving Iris back to her house after reads and listening to Makenzie's interviews on her iPad. I will always remember how hard I've laughed while rehashing townie stories with Lola and how proud I felt when Victoria told me all about covering Le Tour De Carrboro.
I’ve loved scrolling on Pinterest with Sophie Baglioni when we should have been writing a headline for her story. I feel so lucky that she’s been by my side this year, too. Watching her teach writers with such compassion and understanding has been one of the greatest joys of my job.
Kathryn DeHart keeps our desk full of energy (and keeps me feeling old) no matter what. Being assistants together and more importantly, becoming friends, was undoubtedly my favorite part about junior year.
And on the days when the job felt too overwhelming, my eyes were tired from doing reads and I just wanted to eat dinner at a regular time, Walker Livingston believed in me when I couldn’t. She’s become one of my very best friends and my eyes well up when I think about us not being neighbors in a few months.
