During my experiences at VSU, I have been faced with many ups and downs.
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  I have been faced with challenges, both on and off campus as well as in and out of the classroom. We all have.

   The difference between me and those who dropped out, packed up and shipped out is that I never gave up.

   When I graduated high school in May 2008, I was revved up. I couldn’t wait to bolt five hours away from my peppy, hovering family. When that move-in day in August 2008 came, I thought, “Finally I am free.”

   I came to VSU and immediately got into a relationship that started out great and wonderful but turned out to be the worse, most consuming relationship of my dating history thus far. I had to do laundry and learn to shop for groceries. I had to stand on my own feet, no matter what.

   Welcome to college. Here, you are away from mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, whoever.

Here, you are away from the pats on the back, and good job kiddo; all the praise your high school days might have brought you. At least, I was.

   VSU is a wonderful school. Here you aren’t a number. Here you are a person. Here your teachers know you by name. Here your teachers care. This is a good school with a lot of good resources. Use them.

   I came to VSU to be a theatre major. I loved acting and I thought performing was the best thing ever. I thought that I was going to be the next headliner on Broadway.

   However, after failing to get into the musical theatre program, I stepped back and reevaluated my options. Eventually, I was led to journalism, thus “The Spectator.”

   I was promoted to the Editor-in-Chief slot this past December when Desiree Thompson graduated. It was a position I never thought I could do. It was a position I didn’t want to do, but I was chosen to do it. So I did. I put my heart and soul into it. I cared about my staff.

   I have seen the hard work that was put in every Wednesday night. I have heard all the comments made about the “Spec-u-lator.”

   And I was about to make sure I didn’t hear those comments again. I wanted a change. Yes, the position was tough, a lot tougher than I expected. Yes, I had some uncommitted and apathetic writers; every editor-in-chief has.

But I had a good staff. This is a good staff.

   It is easy to judge something without knowing what really goes on. It is easy to look at the front page and see that one typo and toss the whole paper aside. Honestly, I take that as a compliment. If all you can find wrong are typos, we are doing something right.

   “The Spectator” works every week. We deal with a misguided, misinformed administration every week; I know this by personal experience. We deal with so many brick walls. We deal with so many issues. But we never stop delivering and coming out every week. Why? Because it’s our job. Journalism is a service. It’s a good service with a good mission: to deliver the news to you.

   So what am I doing now, you might ask? Well I got sick. Point blank. I left my job, which I hated doing but had to, and went home, that place I so happily fled almost four years ago.

   I am still a student. My professors are working with me so I can finish online by July while I get some rest and spend time with my family.

   I worked really hard to get where I am at today. This semester alone I was doing an internship at The Voice, working at the paper, working at Valdosta Catering, trying to finish school, living on my own in an off-campus apartment, while still trying to have a social life. Yeah, I was exhausted.

   But I never quit. And I guess that’s my point. You do what’s right for you. You do what makes you happy. Because at the end of the day, that’s all what matters.