5. Echo Ball 

The Echo has tried a lot of things to make the sports section seem fun to inexperienced writers. Echo Ball, a strange combination of soccer and basketball, was created by our adviser David Keith, then subsequently surprised me as I walked into what I thought was a normal meeting. Somehow, I got out of playing and reffed — but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my staff have so much fun during a meeting. Nor have I ever seen them be so competitive and yet so unserious. We definitely knocked some tables over, but thankfully, nobody was hurt.

4. Horseback riding 

Madison Ogle, my Echo bestie, and our long-graduated buddy Ashley Savage and I decided to go horseback riding at some point during my sophomore year. Ashley was a senior, and boy, did Maddie and I think she had it all figured out. It was planned as a girls’ trip but somehow doubled as an advice-giving culmination of my girlhood. We all piled into my 2010 Kia and drove into the Ozarks. Our riding instructor made all the stress of life melt away as she told us we had our lives ahead of us, to not worry about romance, and that we seemed like a trio of educated girls with bright futures.

3. Power outage 

We produce the paper every Monday night. It takes hours, and every Editor’s worst nightmare is an InDesign crash or a power surge. What we never feared, until the moment it happened, was that a wild storm would roll through on a Monday night and knock out the power to the newsroom, to campus and to Conway as a whole for half an hour. On The Echo’s TikTok, I caught the moment the power cut on video, along with a very hilarious screech from Madison Ogle. I still carry a flashlight in my car now, just in case.

2. ACMAs 

Every year The Echo submits articles, page designs, reporters, etc. to the Arkansas College Media Association competition. The 2022 awards were held at A-State, where they wined and dined us. We won Newspaper of the Year … I also took a nap in my car. In 2023, the food wasn’t as great, but Madison Ogle and I won Photographer of the Year and Reporter of the Year respectively. I remember how pale she turned before it was announced, and how excited we were after. My award also came with a $1,000 check, which I took straight to the bank.

1. Nights out 

Yes, we work hard. We also play hard. At the end of the 2023 spring semester, many of my longtime friends were graduating. We managed to get a whole group of Echo kids out to a bar, where we danced the night away. Beyond that, all the sleepovers, graduation parties, movie dates and dinner talks will always stay with me. I don’t think there’s a better feeling than having fun and letting loose with the people who work so hard with you every day. It’s cathartic.