Dear VALLEY Magazine,
Wow, my very last VALLEY article. I have looked at this laptop so many times, with an “Untitled document” open and staring at the abyss that is a white, blank Google Doc. I have typed millions of words on here for VALLEY, I’ve backspaced, left comments and written out gibberish when I didn’t know what to say. I’ve written entire articles in one hour, and also in the span of a week, putting down less than a hundred words each day. I’ve had interviews and pulled quotes and added “__ says” frequently, meeting new and unique people each time. But here I am, writing my last article for this publication, and now I wish I hadn’t wished all of my writer’s block away.
It has been such a wonderful journey over these past three years writing for VALLEY. While there were nights when I would bang my head against a wall to come up with decent pitches, I have loved each topic that I have covered. From my very first article, when I went and interviewed students who worked at the Penn State gym, to my cover story –– when I got to interview the vibrant Veronica Zelner and write about femininity, with all of its facets. Even though I cringe at my writing in some of my older articles, they were all a piece of what built me into a better writer.
They challenged me, each semester giving me a project to look forward to. I still have a ways to go to being a great writer for a professional magazine or some kind of publication, but I know that VALLEY taught me how to write vibrantly and confidently, which I am so grateful for.
I remember feeling lost when I first started on VALLEY, unsure exactly what my niche in journalism was going to be. I had sworn off writing sports and political journalism, but wasn’t exactly sure what else was out there. I felt nervous walking into my first meeting, hoping my pitches would be good enough.
But that day, I met Alyssa in the hallways before the meeting started, and sat with her. I remember hearing her pitches the first few weeks and feeling like my own were lousy in comparison. Alyssa’s brilliance and creativity pushed me to find my own, unique outlook on story ideas. She became one of my closest friends, and my very first journalism friend.
Our VALLEY journey has always been intertwined –– stitched together like a book. We used to dream about becoming editors, never quite knowing that we would both have our own editor in chief terms. I am always grateful that we were web writers together, and get to end our VALLEY journey together as washed-up web writers.
There are so many people who left their VALLEY mark on me permanently. Leigh and Sylvie, my greatest teachers who I look up to so much. Natalie, who has taken over the editor in chief position so flawlessly. Every writer on staff who’s creative ideas impress me every meeting. Vanessa, Dani and Greta who are masters at solving every WordPress problem.
The people really make the place, and this place is so special because of every member. VALLEY fosters the creative mind: the fashionable freshman looking for a home, the curious writer in need of a canvas, the 4.0 student looking for something more. VALLEY welcomes them all, and more.
To this club, it’s people and everyone that built VALLEY, thank you. I will try to look to my future with a smile as I move past college and this club, knowing what VALLEY gave me will last forever.
Related
A Love Letter From VALLEY’s Class of 2023
You Can Still be Something New at 22
College Graduation Gift Guide
Hello there, I discovered your blog by the use of Google at the same time as looking for a comparable subject, your site came up, it appears to be like good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Today, I went to the beachfront with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!
I discovered your weblog site on google and test a couple of of your early posts. Proceed to maintain up the very good operate. I just extra up your RSS feed to my MSN Information Reader. Looking for ahead to reading extra from you in a while!…
I believe other website owners should take this website as an example , very clean and excellent user genial design.
Hello my family member! I want to say that this post is awesome, nice written and come with almost all significant infos. I would like to peer extra posts like this .
of course like your website but you have to check the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it very troublesome to tell the truth nevertheless I will surely come back again.
Terrific work! This is the type of info that should be shared around the internet. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher! Come on over and visit my site . Thanks =)
I’m really impressed with your writing talents and also with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid topic or did you customize it your self? Anyway stay up the nice high quality writing, it is uncommon to see a nice weblog like this one nowadays..
Great – I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your web site. I had no trouble navigating through all the tabs as well as related info ended up being truly simple to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it in the least. Reasonably unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or anything, web site theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Excellent task..
Just wanna comment that you have a very nice web site, I like the design and style it actually stands out.