As a freshman, I thought The BV was lame.
Obviously, I was wrong.
Looking back on the last two years as an editor, I remember tears. A lot of them. Mainly on those nights that I sat at my desk laying out a page at 3 a.m. and I could barely keep my eyes open and nothing looked right and it seemed like it would never end.
But more than the tears, I remember friendship. Every editor says it, and I’ll say it again. The BV has given me friendships I never would have had otherwise. I’ve met the most wonderful people through this newspaper, a group of people that make me feel loved and special. No other club on campus has given that to me.
The BV is so much more than a club. It’s a lifestyle. It’s the “spend the weekend coming up with and assigning story ideas, Monday through Wednesday writing and editing stories, Wednesday night newsroom, do it all over again” lifestyle.
Wednesday nights will feel very empty from now on, because I won’t spend them dancing on top of a desk to “Get Low” with Emmy and Amelia. I won’t spend them giggling endlessly with Andrea, distracting everyone else in the newsroom as we come up with ridiculous headlines. I won’t spend them in a newsroom full of friends and smiling faces.
When I first found out sophomore year that I had earned an editor position, I was terrified. I’m an introvert. I’m not comfortable in leadership roles. I’m not comfortable telling people what to do. And I’m not the most organized person in the world. So I didn’t know how I would get through the semester as assignment editor, let alone the next semester as features editor. But I learned along the way, with an awesome support team. It took time, but I learned InDesign. I learned leadership skills, and I learned it’s okay to have my own way of leading. I learned how to edit, and my writing improved immensely.
Now I can’t read anything without picking apart all of the grammatical and AP Style mistakes. Thanks, BV and Dr. Wilkins.
I don’t know where I’ll end up after graduation, but no matter where I go or what I do, my memories of The BV will stay with me, and the skills and lessons I learned here will stick with me forever.
Lauren Zazzara is an Associate Editor for the Bona Venture. Her email is
zazzarlm13@bonaventure.edu
