It's #DTHBidDay!

Our deadline for new staffer applications was 5 p.m. on Monday, and when the application was closed and I checked the final count, I found a record-setting year of applications.

Waiting for me and my desk editors: 189 hopeful young journalists seeking a position at The Daily Tar Heel. As daily news organizations, both college and professional, fade out every single day, I burst with pride to hear that 189 people are hoping to join our staff and keep us alive. 

WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME HOME TO MY 21 NEW STAFFERS #dthbidday pic.twitter.com/SQ53eTr3Ic

— kelsey weekman (@kelsaywhat) September 3, 2015

HAPPY BID DAY FROM YOUR FAVORITE STUDENT PUBLICATION (aka the cheapest frat on campus) #dthbidday #statnat pic.twitter.com/2FvEcoJhdg

— Hayley Fowler (@h_fowl) September 3, 2015

What a wonderful world. In a time where young journalist hopefuls can start their own blog or work for HerCampus or The Odyssey, there are still people who can't wait to see their names in newsprint. 

I look back at this time in my life and remember a few things about my first few weeks at the DTH: I was excited and thrilled to be hired, but I was also scared, nervous and convinced that they'd realize I was actually terribly unqualified and send me packing all the way back to Granville. They didn't, and here I am. 

So you're probably feeling a little excited, a little scared and a lot nervous. Hopefully all of the three. Don't fret — we've been there. I get a little nervous every day.

And in my nostalgia, I decided to ask some of my fellow editors here to tell me about a fun time from their first year as a staffer at the DTH. 

• "I covered a meeting in Carrboro one night. It was raining and cold, and I had to take a bus to Open Eye Cafe. I cut my thumb on my umbrella trying to close it and had started to bleed without realizing it as I ran into the meeting 10 minutes late. I sopped up the blood on my actual umbrella and took notes in an hour-long meeting completely one-handed. I told you, fun times." — Paige Ladisic, editor-in-chief
• "One time I went to a BOG meeting and accidentally spilled my thermos of coffee on myself, my computer and the shoes of the N&O reporter sitting beside me, but we were in the weeds of the meeting so I couldn't get it up to clean it and had to use my computer cover to half-assedly mop up the coffee on the table." — Mary Tyler March, managing editor
• "I cried out of happiness the first time I shot a basketball game and another photographer on the court saw me and very silently chuckled. And sophomore year I shot a porno. Not really. It was a musical with dinosaurs and involved sex changes and sex. But I was traumatized." — Katie Williams, photo editor
• "I fact-checked my own name in the first Q&A I wrote. The arts editors nicknamed me Detail-Oriented Diva." — Gabbie Cirelli, multimedia editor
• "One time, a source sent me a link to his personal website where he listed all the traits he looks for in a woman." — Kelsey Weekman, online managing editor

Welcome to the family, new DTHers. We can't wait to meet you.