Eight weeks after legendary quarterback Brett Favre announced his retirement from the Green Bay Packers, I too must leave my position with The Daily Toreador.
There may not be a weeping press conference for me to fully express how sad this realization makes me feel, but I've never been much for the public speaking or just expressing emotion in person, period.
Writing has always been the one avenue I could bare my soul best, or as one of my mother's best friends put it, where I "throw up on paper." In this, I hope I have provided a simple peek into an average Tech student's point of view, or sometimes lack thereof. I hope my writings were, if nothing else, entertaining to some.
My time with The DT and my position as first a columnist, then an editor and then a double editor, is what any other person might proclaim as a brilliant stroke of luck.
While it is true the circumstances that led to me working with The DT could best be described with words such as "chance" or "serendipity," I have lived by the belief since I was a child that luck doesn't exist. Or in stealing an Obi-Wan Kenobi line, "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."
I was working at my apartment as a leasing agent when I ran into my friend Trent Barnes, who was just moving into the same complex. I asked him how working as a photographer was going and also jokingly told him he should put in a word for me if there was a writing position open.
Days later, Trey Caliva called.
I must say, I am first most indebted to Trey - or perhaps second, after dear Trent - who hired me without even a writing sample, on the advice - or mention rather - of a close friend of mine. Another co-worker later would say he had a great sense of people and I suppose I could say that's true, without trying to sound pretentious.
I remember picking up the first paper of the fall semester to read his column so I could get an idea of what kind of bar was being set before me, and I am continually thankful for his role in the childhood of my columnist days.
The next person I am indebted to is my former co-worker - and current Joshua Lyman/Capt. Malcolm Reynolds wannabe - who was the first to ask me if I had a job, and upon hearing that I did, if I would be interested in having a second one.
I'm also indebted to Miss Alvin, who surely must have been apprehensive about hiring me with so little experience, mid-semester. For her to be so patient with me the first couple months and ultimately, in becoming one of my close friends, I am eternally grateful.
Like any job I have had, the greatest thing about it has been the people, who ultimately become like a family of sorts. We are most assuredly a group that would have no association with one another without our shared love for this paper, and I am thankful for each and every one of them.
I would list them all, saying how much they mean to me, but then I might ACTUALLY start crying ... and I really can't lose my rough exterior persona or street-cred. It also would turn this column into a 1,500 word sap-fest, of which I am aware nobody would want to be associated with - or read.
I have had four jobs prior to this one - kids camp counselor, community adviser, waitress and, as aforementioned, leasing agent - but working here was finally the first job where I was doing something that utilized my one marginally good skill and true joy in life - writing. I have other talents - most athletics, picking up small objects with my toes, being fluent in sarcasm, quoting Eddie Izzard incessantly, Pictionary - but writing is the skill that ultimately has shaped what I want to do for the rest of my life, and my job here at The DT has further helped me confirm this, dare I say, dream.
Though technically I'm not graduating until December 2008, I will be studying abroad in Sevilla, Spain, for my final semester and truly the only thing that has made me apprehensive about going during that time was my love for this paper and its staff - aside from the fact that I'm probably going to be missing the best Tech football season ever ... damn it.
I hope the Opinions section will continue to grow in diversity and complexity. My one goal, from my very green beginnings, has been to be balanced in the ideological point-of-views represented in the section. Some believe this has not been achieved, purposefully, and I would encourage those students who disagree to become more involved with the paper in the coming semester. Write columns or letters to the editor. Be proactive in your complaints - and for God's sake, try to throw in a compliment every once in a while.
As is also true in our whimsically fallacious political system, change does not happen by bitching and moaning with your friends. Write, live, love ... blah, blah, blah.
I wouldn't know how to end this final column without sounding depressingly girly or by using some Star Wars quote as a way of avoiding said girly-isms. I feel sort of shell shocked about the fact that I won't be living in Lubbock any longer. The idea of finally receiving the toils of my labors, in the form of a mere piece of paper, makes me want to throw up.
Fair thee well Lubbock. I really hope you improve in the next 30 years - so when I bring my children here I won't have to explain why Tech was always out of your league.
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