When I think about WVU News, I can’t seem to pinpoint what makes the class so unique and memorable. One cliché that you’d probably hear is how difficult and intensive the work is, and how much pressure is on oneself. Fully expecting this heading into class, my perception was completely flipped about a month in.

It might be the people. The classmates you spend countless hours shooting and editing with evolve from strangers to great friends in what seemed to be no time. You share stories out in the field, good or bad, and there’s a level of the relatable experiences you can’t get anywhere else. We’re all in it together for better or for worse.  

It could be WVU. Morgantown by itself isn’t as nearly dynamic when it’s resting in the summer as it is with 30,000 new faces in the fall. Stories and people from all around the world create an extremely diverse populace you just can’t find anywhere else. It gives life to the stories being covered in its own unique way.

It could be the timing, and as I type this, the more and more I’m inclined to say this is what it is. On the edge of 4 years spent improving and getting better, it’s easy to lose sense of how quickly time moves. We’ve come from learning about Marconi inventing the radio to reporting breaking news on an elite national collegiate program.                                                                                                       

There in lies the contradiction. We’ve made it this far but now face an ominous and uncertain future. We’re confident young journalists maybe one or two steps away from becoming very good at what we love. Because of this, we move on. We leave the place that’s seasoned our talents and given us memories that will undoubtedly last forever.

That’s why I’m finding it difficult to wrap up the time I’ve spent here in a consolidated blurb with a gold and blue bow on top. We’re all used to the four-year cycle by now. High school, College (in most cases), but then what? We’ve lost our sense of structured development that we’ve become accustom to. That’sexactly why WVU News is so special. We can face tomorrow with the tools we’ve been given to succeedfrom this class. We can be confident in ourselves with the relationships we’ve made over the course of the semester. We know we can do it because we’ve shown we can, and that’s encouraging. Whereverthis experience takes us, I hope to run into my friends along the way.