This year has been a very good one for me. It would be easiest for me to write a farewell on all the good I accomplished this year, the fun times I’ve had with friends or the stellar experiences I’ve had serving as the assistant opinion editor for The Daily Tar Heel.
I have written on issues that I am passionate about: fighting the dismantling of public education, comic books, environmental conservation, art museums and the protection of democratic values. My hope is that I’ve had some sort of positive impact on this wonderful community.
While I am sure I could write some worthwhile sentiment out of all of that, I would be missing an opportunity to acknowledge that, despite my best efforts and best intentions, I have managed to commit a fair number of mistakes.
Throughout this school year and my tenure as the assistant opinion editor, I have disappointed people, done poorly on more than a few assignments and the list goes on for a while. Many of you may have noticed the occasional error on this page, and, if given the space, I would go into further detail about specific mistakes I personally made this year.
That said, it is never fun to publicly admit to mistakes, but trying to convince myself otherwise or act like they did not happen would be an utter waste of time. In this case, honesty is the best policy.
To the people impacted by any mistake I have made, I would like to issue a sincere apology. But even though I feel bad about many past transgressions, it does not bring me any sense of sadness; it is actually quite to the contrary. Mistakes are often inconvenient in the moment, but they are a shaping force for me.
Every mistake I have made was unintentional and has taught me a lot — from grammatical errors in editorials to sometimes hurting friends — I am a better writer, citizen and person because of them. I see no reason to be upset about that.
