Throughout my college career, I’ve probably spent most of my academic time at The Echo’s office. The life of a journalist is one of late nights, missed deadlines and waking up the next morning worrying about next week’s issue.

I’ve seen the sun rise above the campus as I put the final pages of the paper to bed.

I’ve walked to my 8 a.m. Tuesday-Thursday assembly class straight from The Echo on Tuesday morning after being up at the office since 8 a.m. on Monday.

And I’ve spent the better part of my weekends calling people and setting up interviews, or coming to campus during spring break to talk to officials.

But the crazy part is, I’d easily do it again in a heartbeat.

We start the semester dreading the next 13 weeks, looking at long lists of deadlines, layouts and staff training.

As I leave tonight, I wish my job had only just begun.

I have no memories of my college career apart from The Echo.

I will not look back on my first day as a freshman, or my final day as a senior.

Instead, I will look back at my first issue, or my final meeting with my staff, although I’m sure they’re glad to see me go as I’m typically known around the office as the unemotional hard-ass.

It’s a reputation I’ve worked years to achieve.

As I type my final word to the UCA campus, my award-winning staff works hastily around me, putting together the final paper of the spring 2007 semester.

When I assumed the role of editor for this semester, I had but one goal: to produce the best college publication in the state in both design and content.

I can safely say as I leave this campus and newspaper, I have accomplished this goal.

There have been mistakes, and there have been missed opportunities.

There is no possibility of having a perfect product, no matter how much work goes into it. But we learned from our mistakes and improved the product from week to week.

There will always be critics, and there will always be fans. But I can honestly say that both play an important role – I’ve learned more from those that hate our paper than those that praise us daily.

In the end, I just hope that we have more readers of The Echo than previous semesters.

Several changes have come about during the past semesters. We dropped The Psycho – the annual April Fools Day publication.

While entertaining, The Psycho doesn’t fit into the vision of professionalism we’ve had over the last few semesters.

We also dropped the end-of-the-year staff page, as we figured our inside jokes and messages to each other are best suited to be told in our office, not in our publication.

As I finish my final classes and pack to move to Fayetteville for my new job, I can only look back in jealousy at the new staff and all that lies before them.

But things can’t stay the same forever – we must change. It’s time I moved on and handed the reins of the paper over to a new staff.

Some of the changes I’ve worked hard to implement would not have been possible to achieve without the support of this year’s staff.

The paper doesn’t belong to us – it’s the students’ publication. Never forget that.

We are journalists by career choice, but students first-and-foremost.

I walk away from both this campus and this paper with no regrets, and I only hope those who follow me do the same.

I deserve none of the praise for this publication – without a doubt none of it would have been possible without the help of my staff.

For them, I am eternally grateful, and I only hope that one day we are fortunate enough to cross paths again.