Past EIC says goodbye to The BV

in OPINION by

I joined The BV as a freshman journalism major, convinced I was on the way to changing the world. I wanted to have The BV as a resume booster, and didn’t expect to get much out of it.
I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible on Wednesday nights, and as a staff writer, often I was in and out as soon as my story was edited. Still, when Julia Mericle and Rachel Konieczny were looking for a news assignment editor at the end of my freshman year, I jumped at the chance, and got it.
Somehow, I ended up editor-in-chief in my junior year. No longer could I run down to The BV and run out as soon as I was done editing my own work. I often stayed down in the basement of the Reilly Center from 7:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday nights. Sometimes, my fellow late-night staffers and I would continue hanging out after we finished laying everything out. I don’t know how we did it, or why. I do know I missed a couple 10 a.m. classes on Thursday mornings that semester.
I wouldn’t change my time at The BV for anything. I met, got to know and came to love so many incredibly talented, brilliant, caring and funny writers. I can’t even describe the way I feel about these people, other than to say that together we have really seen the best and absolute worst of one another (weird things happen at 3 a.m.), and yet we still love each other. I learned so much about myself from everyone I met at The BV and I always felt like my truest self in my time spent with them.
Recently, I’ve gotten to bond with alumni over our shared, inexplicable-to-an-outsider love for this paper, all of whom agree on one thing: We’re really lucky to have found The BV.
I can’t believe my time down in the basement of the RC, my time at my beautiful home with my beautiful roommates, my countless hours above Nature’s Remedy and in Long House and Full House, my long year in Dev, my short year in Fal, are so close to being just memories.
I’ll forever be grateful for everything St. Bonaventure has given to me. It’s really given me just about everything: a home, a new family and a strange sense that, in spite of everything, I have a whole world at my disposal.
I got more out of The BV than I could have ever imagined when I first started. Hopefully I gave something back, too.