I transferred to UCA after completing my freshman year elsewhere, starting classes here in fall 2020. Looking back, there are quite a few things I wish I had done differently.

The first class I went to at UCA was beginning reporting. There, I made my first friend on campus. Now, I am about to pass the reins of editor-in-chief of The Echo onto that friend — Mia Waddell.

Soon after meeting her, Mia encouraged me to join The Echo as she had just done. I didn’t actually do that until the following semester, but I wish I had joined then.

The Echo has been an amazing experience that has drastically improved my writing and editing skills. Being a part of this paper has been the best way to hone my journalism skills and apply what I was learning in class. The work here has 100% been worthwhile and I am proud of my time here.

To anyone who reads The Echo, especially journalism majors and others in the school of communication, I seriously encourage you to come and try writing for the paper, you won’t regret it. I wish I had joined earlier for more time as a writer and more opportunities to apply for different staff positions. Due to the time I joined, I was only able to hold positions in the campus life section before becoming the associate editor and now editor-in-chief. I would have loved to design pages for some of our other wonderful sections.

Something else I wish I had done was get more involved with other campus organizations. UCA has a wealth of groups across different fields that can all be found on CubConnect.

I’ve covered a couple events held by the Green Bear Coalition, and I’ve always been interested in what they do. Joining groups like GBC is a great way to meet more people on campus and to grow yourself and your skills, and I wish I had taken the opportunity to join these groups.

On top of joining groups, I wish I had attended more of the events that UCA has to offer. I’ve been to many events as a reporter, but few just as a student. There are often great talks from faculty about different topics, volunteer opportunities and so many sporting events with fun crowds. These are great ways to get more involved and in the school spirit. I did not go to enough of these and if it tells you anything about my school spirit, the only UCA merchandise I have is a shirt from The Echo and my parking sticker.

It’s easy to make those friends in classes, but hanging out outside of class is a whole different step. I’ve made good friends on The Echo’s staff throughout covering events, writing and making the pages on our production nights, but rarely did we all hang out outside of making the paper. It wasn’t until very recently that we all hung out and we were all asking “why didn’t we do this sooner?” So, be sure to spend time with friends outside of class before graduation sneaks up on you. Additionally, all the things listed above are great ways to make friends.

I wrote an opinion last year about trying less, and I wish I had taken that advice sooner. There’s no difference in the final grade between a 100 and a 90, so why put in strenuous amounts of effort in every class at the cost of your time and mental health? I should have thrown in the towel on some assignments when it was just too much, I could have dealt with a small hit to my grade. This isn’t to say to give up or stop learning. Sometimes the busy work in a random elective prevents you from properly learning the material in a core class for your major. Know how to prioritize your work and focus on learning above all.

I may have spent my whole senior column talking about what I should have done differently with my time at UCA, but I genuinely enjoyed my stay. UCA was a great school to join and The Echo and journalism professors have been a central part of my experience here. I’m a bit sad to bid it farewell

As Mia would say — deuces.