In French it means “I miss you already,” and it applies to just about everything about my time at WSU.

As a freshman, one of my first professors, Peter Chilson, suggested I might enjoy writing for the Daily Evergreen. I shrugged it off as a kind compliment but thought it would be too much to take on. Two years later at the tail end of a summer spent in quarantine in Texas, I had this feeling. I needed to be a journalist.

You may remember some of the events from the summer of 2020. The Black Lives Matter movement was at a peak after the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd — and the worldwide movement for justice for police brutality victims — were all that media outlets across the world were covering. I was emotionally connected to these stories and the unfolding international activism that followed. A veil had been lifted and the world was beginning to see how deeply racial privilege and racism were affecting our world.

At the forefront of the coverage of these stories were journalists like CNN reporter Omar Jimenez. A Black man reporting on the scene of BLM protests in Minneapolis. In May 2020, Jimenez and his coworkers were arrested, held, then released later that day according to an Insider article. These were journalists reporting on the reality of a national and international movement — how could they be arrested for doing their job?

I was moved to anger, disbelief and passion. How could we claim to support free speech and the work of journalists at the same time we were watching journalists being arrested while doing, I repeat, their job? I wanted to stand with them somehow. I wanted to do what they did: tell the truth without concern for what other people would think.

It was this arrest and this entire summer that pushed me to apply for my first job at the Daily Evergreen, and it has changed my life.

I went on to present my Honors Thesis on media bias and its effects on our biases toward oppressed communities. I got to interview the managing editor of the news organization, AllSides, which is working to provide “balanced news, diverse perspectives and real conversation” according to their website.

I have been introduced to some of the most incredible, passionate and intelligent students in our community at WSU through this job. One of my first opinion pieces was about the lack of cultural and racial diversity in Greek Life. I got to interview students my age who had experienced this lack of representation in a real way, and who had the best input on how we could change this to benefit students from all backgrounds. It was eye opening as a white person who had grown up without any real concern for how my family could pay for something —anything.

My time with my coworkers at the Evergreen has been fleeting. People come and go quickly in this business. Some can’t handle being asked to bring their best to a job that does in fact take a lot of time and a lot of effort. I won’t downplay the long nights and frustrating moments. It is hard to lead a newsroom of people who are students as well as employees.

In the end, we created something truly beautiful together this semester. Every edition was better than the last, and each person who stuck with us to the end of Spring 2022 gave it their all. I am grateful for each of you. Tom, Nick, Emma, Dorothy, Lannan, Kestra, Mikayla, Tracy, Mindy, Sheila and Sandi. You all hold such a big place in my heart for the things we went through to push the Evergreen to a new level of excellence.

Most of all, I am grateful for those who pushed me to greatness. To Peter Chilson, those at AllSides, Omar Jimenez and every other professional journalist who continues to fight against the echo chambers of social media, the dwindling faith in journalists and paper journalism and everything else standing in our way … we continue to tell the truth.

I am so proud to be a part of this community. Tu me manques déjà.