Farewell Column: 14 minutes and 35 seconds.
By Aiko Rachel Peterson | May 1"Herein lies the conclusion of my time at the DTH and my farewell column. As the last day of classes approaches, I can feel my time here slipping through my fingers."
"Herein lies the conclusion of my time at the DTH and my farewell column. As the last day of classes approaches, I can feel my time here slipping through my fingers."
"It’s going to be hard for me to let go, but I know that I’ll be leaving this newsroom and this school with something to show for myself and with an impact on others."
"Sooner or later, it’ll sink in that this might be among the most fulfilling things I’ll ever do and that it’s surely all downhill from here."
"It started with a mini bubble gum machine, a disco ball and a small green stegosaurus. They were the seeds of our trinket garden, and physical representations of our main goal: to make the newly-minted Lifestyle desk fun and eclectic."
"I owe so much to The Daily Tar Heel. It allowed me to establish myself professionally while immersing myself in my community in a way unlike any other."
"I know that I have created memories, safe spaces, and planted seeds for the people that come after me to thrive and make the DTH a better place.""
"While it’s finally time to finish out my years at the newsroom, I can’t seem to find a way to finish up this column. How to wrap up three years of bylines and dozens of bell dings that ring through the office after print is submitted."
"Putting dozens of college students in a room together for hours on end guarantees you’ll hear some great music — some you know, some you’ve never heard of before."
"I never liked farewell columns when I was at The Daily Tar Heel. They always seemed too self indulgent — no offense to my wonderful peers that have written plenty of these over the years — considering that most of our readers don’t know or care about who is producing the news they read."
"The job hasn’t been perfect, and as my friends know, my hours are irregular and my weekends have been filled with sports — but I wouldn’t change it for the world."
"Everyone in the DTH office has taught me something. I barely knew how to get to the office before I was an editor, and now walking in feels like home."
"The very structure of The Daily Tar Heel makes it hard to actually be part of this newsroom if you don’t have the financial stability to handle below-average pay for the sake of altruistic, hard-earned journalism experience. I can count on one hand the amount of DTH editors over my two years that could relate to my situation."
"To all my DTH friends and family, thank you for being a part of my neighborhood."
"The time I spent in the newsroom all these days, weeks and lives wasn’t just for the paper. It was for them. I was spending time with my friends. With my family."
"And while some days in news — well, actually a lot of days — are long and tiresome, working with many talented and wonderful people at the DTH has given me hope for the future of journalism and the world."
"I love the DTH so much that I wanted to let it break me. If we’re being honest, I might have let it do that already."
"I’m the first to leave every party I go to. My bed and I have a passionate affair that I refuse to cut short in the name of social graces. I always know when to say my goodbyes. And while I’m not a senior, it’s time I say goodbye to The Daily Tar Heel."
"The Daily Tar Heel has made me endlessly grateful for mornings. The 3 a.m. variety. "
"So, when the opportunity arose, I applied to become the diversity, equity and inclusion chairperson at the paper. I didn’t seek the position assuming I could rewrite the DTH’s legacy in one to two years. (After all, it is the campus paper of a University built by slaves.) Instead, I sought the position because I felt like I would at least be honest with the newsroom about its issues, if nothing else."
"When I connect with people — especially in the journalism world — I find those connections unbreakable. There’s some special sauce that we all share that makes us crazy enough to enjoy working insane hours and Slacking during class – and I think that sauce is delicious."