I’ve always had an interest in and love for media, for how it gets made and the people who make it happen. I never thought it was an option for me until I walked into a Hutchinson Collegian planning meeting three years ago.
Now I can’t imagine doing anything else.
I will forever be thankful for the incredible team of people I have worked with. They have helped give me the confidence to be who I am in the public eye, to be loud and take up space. I have full faith they will go on to be incredible journalists.
It was a wonderful experience to be a part of a team making something bigger happen. To watch our plans become reality. Some of my best memories are from those meetings, and from hanging out while we designed pages. Going to the convention and celebrating our wins. Watching horror movies or going to hockey games.
That newsroom, and the people in it, became like a home and a family. And leaving Friday for the final time is going to be difficult.
I will forever be thankful for the friend who told me the paper needed more writers, and that I thought “Why the hell not?”
Somehow, looking back, three years feels like no time at all. It doesn’t feel like enough time for me to have changed as much as I have. But I suppose that’s part of the college experience, isn’t it? A chance to start exploring who you are outside the confines of childhood.
I’m forever grateful I decided to throw myself into something new. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t.
Kai Spahr is a Buhler sophomore studying media and film production. They are the Opinion Page Editor.
