"The very structure of The Daily Tar Heel makes it hard to actually be part of this newsroom if you don’t have the financial stability to handle below-average pay for the sake of altruistic, hard-earned journalism experience. I can count on one hand the amount of DTH editors over my two years that could relate to my situation."
"To all my DTH friends and family, thank you for being a part of my neighborhood."
"The time I spent in the newsroom all these days, weeks and lives wasn’t just for the paper. It was for them. I was spending time with my friends. With my family."
"And while some days in news — well, actually a lot of days — are long and tiresome, working with many talented and wonderful people at the DTH has given me hope for the future of journalism and the world."
"I love the DTH so much that I wanted to let it break me. If we’re being honest, I might have let it do that already."
"I’m the first to leave every party I go to. My bed and I have a passionate affair that I refuse to cut short in the name of social graces. I always know when to say my goodbyes. And while I’m not a senior, it’s time I say goodbye to The Daily Tar Heel."
"The Daily Tar Heel has made me endlessly grateful for mornings. The 3 a.m. variety. "
"So, when the opportunity arose, I applied to become the diversity, equity and inclusion chairperson at the paper. I didn’t seek the position assuming I could rewrite the DTH’s legacy in one to two years. (After all, it is the campus paper of a University built by slaves.) Instead, I sought the position because I felt like I would at least be honest with the newsroom about its issues, if nothing else."
"When I connect with people — especially in the journalism world — I find those connections unbreakable. There’s some special sauce that we all share that makes us crazy enough to enjoy working insane hours and Slacking during class – and I think that sauce is delicious."
"Thank you for teaching me how to be vulnerable and giving me the grace to do so. Thank you for teaching me that sometimes, the hardest things are the most worthwhile. Thank you for believing in me the times I struggled to believe in myself."
"Yet another feeling is purpose. The DTH gave me a chance to be a part of something bigger than myself — a chance to feel like I’ve served our community in some small way by simply helping to vet stories for inaccuracies and good-ol’ AP style."
"But the DTH has constantly served as a place where it’s okay that I’m still learning. We all are. It’s okay to be a little stressed, a little messy and a little bit closer to being a grown-up child than an adult."
"I never would’ve made the decision to pursue journalism without the people I worked with. I doubt I would’ve even applied for that job. The DTH office isn’t redeemed by its comforting and peaceful energy, nor its snack selection. It’s redeemed by the people inside it."
"To the people close to me, to Chapel Hill and to a student newspaper of a supposedly 'dying' industry, thank you for being 'so love' and helping little Hunter make the most of his dream."
"It’s time these conversations turn into action, and hiring a more diverse newsroom becomes the absolute precedence. An editor should not be writing about this in their 2028 farewell column."
"We fell down a lot, and we also fought like hell to get back up. To get back to the good parts — the ones that make your heart feel light, right before the drop and the scream and the hands in the air."
"It can feel like life or death sometimes, but at the end of the day, it’s not your job to fix all of the DTH’s issues. Take the best things you can from it and hold those experiences close — I know I will."
"And it’s funny because even as I look back, lamenting some moments of struggle within the DTH, here I am almost a year later, wishing I could’ve contributed more."
"And I do represent Carolina. I represent the one in three women that are sexually assaulted on this campus. I represent the intelligent young women who come into this institution to study and accomplish great work, only to be exorcized of all morale, their diplomas inked with pain and fear. I also represent the lucky ones; the women who barely come out of that pain alive."
"Before I short-circuit my keyboard with my tears, it’s time to say farewell with my parting gift: my very own Office DJ playlist, in honor of all of the students I’ve had the privilege of working alongside in the last four years."
