I started working at The Daily Tar Heel during my first year of college. COVID had taken any semblance of a traditional college experience from me, and I schemed of ways to stay connected to a campus I had barely stepped foot on.
After learning about The Daily Tar Heel through the “clusterfuck” coverage of fall 2020, I figured that would be a good place to start. The newsroom itself was highly atomized at the time but from the very beginning, I observed the camaraderie between the editors and bought in.
I continued as a staffer on the Design desk the rest of the year without ever stepping foot in the office but took pride in the ability to claim that I was a part of the weekly print process. I took every assignment as an opportunity to impress my editors, and at the end of the year, I was asked by the upcoming editor-in-chief, Praveena Somasundaram, to apply for the design editor position within her staff.
I held the role of Design Editor for two years and am now approaching the end of my final year acting as the multimedia managing editor. I don’t have enough space in this column to truly express all of the memories that I associate so closely with this newsroom but there is one that truly represents what is so special about working at The Daily Tar Heel.
In the fall of 2021, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was halfway through my sophomore year, and the news utterly broke me. Independently, I was struggling to establish a hold on college life post-pandemic, and my mother’s diagnosis felt like my last connection to normalcy had finally been severed. Things in my life continued to spiral and by the beginning of the second semester, I felt defeated.
My co-workers at The Daily Tar Heel saw me regularly, and while I was not one to openly discuss personal issues, they knew I was struggling. One particular week I was distraught as I received a hefty parking ticket and was stressed about being able to pay for it with the little money I had. The opinion editor at the time, Rajee Ganesan, coordinated with other editors to pool money to help me pay for it.
When Praveena sent me the money, I cried. I felt so alone during this time but this collective act of kindness meant the absolute world to me. These people, who were probably not much more financially sound than me, had been selfless enough to help me in a time of need.
I owe so much to The Daily Tar Heel. It allowed me to establish myself professionally while immersing myself in my community in a way unlike any other. I have spent my four years in Chapel Hill constantly involved in coverage of the most important events. But when I think of my time as a student journalist, it is the people I spent my time with in the newsroom that come to mind.
It seemed like this newsroom would always be a constant in my life and it's difficult to think that this will be my last week as an employee for The Daily Tar Heel. I will miss the time spent here and despite the grueling hours spent looking at a computer screen, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
