Editor’s Note: Traditionally, graduating seniors working at The Collegian are given the chance to write a farewell note at the end of their tenure at CSU.
I came to Colorado State University with one foot out the door. I was waitlisted by my dream schools, so I planned to do one semester at CSU and then transfer somewhere else.
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The reason I didn’t originally want to go to CSU boiled down to my belief that I was only myself and only a person worth any regard if I was smart and perceived as smart. And according to high-school Adah, a smart person doesn’t go to a state school within an hour of their parents’ house. That wasn’t for me.
But obviously, I’m still here, and that’s thanks to what The Collegian has taught and given me.
The Collegian taught me, first of all, that I’m way too pretentious and that I need to chill out. My belief that smart people only go to super prestigious schools was instantly disproven when I joined the copy desk and met Rachel Baschnagel and Lauren Pallemaerts, two of the smartest people I’ve ever encountered.
The Collegian also taught me that I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought I did about editing. I mean, now I’m perfect — I want any future employers who might find this piece to know that — but I wasn’t as a first-year.
But the best thing The Collegian taught me is that my ability to tell the difference between an en dash and an em dash is not what makes me someone who can be valued and loved; it’s how I can make other people happy — and how they make me happy in return.
When I think about what I’m proud of from my time at The Collegian, I don’t list the errors I’ve corrected and the pieces I’ve written. I think about the times I moved the copy desk to the Durrell Center so we could drink unlimited soda while we worked. I think about Caden Proulx’s drawing of Slaydah and the Lads. I think about the copy desk’s Boulder, Colorado, trips. I think about the funky Venn diagram comparing me with the incomparable Will Engle. I think about my successor, the beautiful, brilliant Claire Vogl.
I think about the community I’ve built with coworkers who have become dear friends. I think about more than I can fit into this goodbye.
I wish the Lory Student Center basement didn’t only feel like a time trap so I could work at The Collegian forever. Ignore this part if you’re a potential employer: I don’t really care about advancing my career. I’d rather keep eating Ramskeller Pub & Grub corn dogs and listening to Nathan Carmody’s playlists while I come up with genius puns. But going to college is expensive, so I must bid The Collegian farewell.
To the members of the copy desk who will survive me — Vogl, Engle, Lexi Urbom, Katelyn Urbanski and Ava Harris — I love you so much. You only need to worry about editing The Stump subject line now because that’s all I’ll be reading post graduation.
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Thank you for everything, Collegian. Stay in touch — because the final lesson you taught me is how to find hard-to-find people on the internet.
Adah McMillan was the fall 2024 executive editor of The Rocky Mountain Collegian. She can no longer be reached at copy@collegian.com, but she can be reached on Twitter @mcadahmillan.
