You know that spiel the university loves to give about alums sprinting through airports to meet up with other alums they don’t even know just because they went to the same school?
That’s not going to be me.
You know an alumnus who plans their entire year around making trips up to Bonaventure to get drunk at the Burton for three nights?
That’s not going to be me.
The school likes to tell you that when you leave here, you never truly leave because Bonas will always be your permanent home address. Well I think I’m going to stick to receiving my mail (or more likely Amazon Prime packages) at whatever actual address I have.
Now to make this clear, I was never completely miserable in my time here or anything; if I had been I would not have stayed. I’ve made some amazing friends, some ridiculous memories and taken some eye-opening classes.
But all this great experience goes hand-in-hand with the empty feelings I got from being here for stretches of time. I’ve spent weeks at a time here just going through the motions of the life of a student.
I’ve found that nearly every semester I would quickly create a routine for myself centered on going to class, studying in the library and socializing that I would repeat week after week after week.
But then I started to write.
For the past year The Bona Venture has been everything to me. I’ve written something every week, to the point where I really thought I had run out of opinions.
There has been nothing I’ve looked forward too more than long Wednesday nights putting the paper together with a bunch of the raddest people I’ve ever met.
It’s pretty much been the only thing I’ve wanted to do in the past year. Most things at Bonaventure feel played out, with much of my coursework feeling repetitive at this point, and the social life being just a constant source of distressing déjà vu.
But the BV has been different, in the best way possible. It’s a never-ending source of fun. And it has done so much for me. I truly know how to express myself now, and I will forever be thankful to this newspaper for that.
And now for the fun part! I may not be accepting an award here, but I’m going to thank people like I am. First off, thanks to Harrison and Taylor, without your encouragement I would have never written a single article.
Thank you, Amelia, your comments and edits on my papers when I first started out made me want to strive to get better and better.
Thank you Emily, you were the most badass editor who ever walked the earth, and you set a high bar I hoped I was able to live up to.
Thank you Diana, I really regret that I won’t get a chance to be your managing editor. I would have jumped at that opportunity in a heartbeat.
And most of all, thank you Julia. I hope I was able to show you 10 percent of the passion for this newspaper that you have. I’m already planning out my weekly letters to the editor for next spring.
And to the rest of the newsroom, I love you all, but I leave you with one last message. I was never your damn pantry, good luck having snacks on Wednesday without me around.
