By Chris Graham
Associate Editor
My trip down to Robinson 111 didn’t follow the same path as some of my fellow editors, so allow me to tell a story.
I was a bad student my freshman year. Grades weren’t a big deal to me. It was a problem I had dealt with through high school. This time around, I chalked it up to being in a new environment and the fact that I wanted to focus my time on meeting new people and not on schoolwork.
For a good part of my first semester, I was a journalism and mass communication student in name only. I wasn’t involved with The Bona Venture at all and only found myself doing little things here and there for The Buzz. I enjoyed my major, but I just wasn’t involved. Little by little, I noticed I wasn’t doing as well as I thought I could.
Then, I received an email that changed me for the rest of my time at Bonaventure.
During that first semester, I had taken the language skills test. This was a test journalism and mass communication majors had to take to move onto the next course, Language Skills for Writers. A short while later, I received an email from now-former dean Lee Coppola. The email said I needed to meet with him in his office to talk about the test.
I figured an email from him wasn’t good, and I began to worry about what a man who took down mobsters in my hometown of Buffalo would have in store for me, an 18-year-old freshman who hadn’t proved anything yet and didn’t care about grades much.
The meeting was exactly what I needed.
I walked into his office and, in his own way, he told me to get my act together. With that, I walked out of his office a little relieved I didn’t have to pack my bags or find another major. But he gave me something I desperately needed — motivation and a dose of reality.
As I contemplated what he said to me, I thought I could continue down the path I was going down or do something about it. Then I remembered my friend Emilee Lindner telling me I should join The BV. I did just that.
As I began to write for it more and more the next few semesters, I became a better writer. I met the people I consider to be my true friends, and now, looking back at it, I’m glad that meeting happened because I was able to get my best experiences out of Bonaventure.
With my story over, I will take the rest of this ed to thank the people who helped me get to this point.
Emilee Lindner: Thank you for telling me about The BV and how I should become a part of its staff. Your encouragement allowed me to get where I am today. Also, thank you for editing the abundance of hip-hop reviews I wrote during your time as editor. It was an honor to be known as the “Urban Correspondent.” I’m still not sure if it was Kristy Kibler or Bryan Jackson who gave me that nickname, but it has stuck for four years and is now finally referenced in the paper.
Kristy Kibler: Thank you for editing the first story I ever wrote for The BV, which needed major surgery. I learned so much from seeing so many different colored corrections, but I didn’t let it beat me down. Thanks for always being there whenever a writer needed help.
Bryan Jackson: Thanks for convincing me that signing up for Op/Ed would be a good idea. While I still should be apologizing for my horrendous ed on Conan O’ Brien, you were always there as a good friend and a strong editor to add a helping hand whenever needed.
Kait Laubscher: Thank you for believing that I could be a good addition to the Op/Ed editorial team. I knew when you commented on one of my eds that my writing had come “leaps and bounds,” I knew I was doing something right. Thanks again for always watching over Op/Ed’s shoulder when you were managing editor and editor-in-chief.
Maria Hayes: Simply put, you were the best section editor ever. I, along with Mary Best, learned so much from you. I don’t think The BV has ever had an editor so many people could look to for guidance or just a friend to lend a kind word during the long BV nights. By the way, I’m sorry for kerning that staff ed to negative-9. It was an honest mistake, and I’m glad we got over it.
Mary Best: Let’s be honest, we were part of some great Op/Ed teams. Whether it was laying pages, coming up with ridiculous headlines together, forming a friendship in the Photos room during Maria’s run as section editor or you working as my loyal assistant last semester, we had fun every week making Op/Ed awesome. You have always been an extremely talented writer and editor. I have no doubt you will take the paper to new heights with your latest promotion. Thanks for being a pretty cool person all around, too.
Ryan Papaserge: Last, but not least, is my friend who has been through it all with me. Thanks for always being there for advice or questions I may have had. I knew you were a person who would always have my back no matter what and for that I am forever grateful. Now enjoy reading this blurb as you no doubt listen to a classic wrestling match on your computer.
Finally, I’m grateful for every staffer and editor I have worked with through the years. You all made the time there that much more worthwhile.
It’s time to find a new opinionated person because I have Op/Ed-ucated for the last time.
grahamcw@bonaventure.edu
