Well... this is goodbye

CREDIT: FSU PUBLICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT

After three great years, this is it. I walk the stage for the second time and am saying a final goodbye to Fanshawe College. It’s a bittersweet feeling, really. London is where I called home for those years and I have started to build my career as a journalist. Not to mention all the friends I made during my time here.

Bear with me as I try to navigate three years of my life into a single article. When I came here, I was so nervous. I was a country girl coming to the big city and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m used to country roads and going to school with the same group of people since kindergarten.

As it is for most people, a worry of mine was making friends. I wasn’t the type of person to just walk up to people and strike conversation. So this meant people had to initiate conversation with me. Which isn’t so easy when it’s late 2020 and everything is online. We still had the privilege of needing to do work in the school, but we were separated from others.

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I truly underestimated the power of a small class and how close you can get with your classmates. We truly became one big family by the end of my program. I think that’s because we were going through the exact same thing, navigating a new experience completely online. It truly wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing professors we had during our time here. Jim, Gina, Mindy, Bob, everyone on both the journalism and radio sides of the program… thank you from the bottom of my heart for the best two years (and now an additional graduate certificate year making it three!) of my life and guiding us through some really hard times.

Some of us even became coworkers later on in our second year at the Interrobang. The friends I made through my time at Fanshawe College are ones I will always treasure, even if we won’t necessarily talk or see each other every day like we once did.

After getting over the initial nerves and settling into my new home, things slowly became easier and fell into place. My second year, the 2021-2022 school year, was the best. COVID had settled down a little bit and I was able to go out to restaurants with friends, hang out in the newsroom, and do things! It was so exciting and a taste of the true college experience. I hope that everyone now, and in the future, will have the same experience. Going out with your friends, having study dates over coffee, seeing them in the classroom is exactly how it should be!

Now, here I sit writing this article. I just wrapped up my classes for the TV news graduate program, marking my third year at Fanshawe. And this article becomes the last of a two-year collection. Where I stand now, I am the morning news anchor at Blackburn Media in Wingham, living the dream and getting up at 2 a.m., doing something I truly love.

It’s hard to believe I’ve come this far already. It may have felt long when I was drowning in assignments and projects, but now, it went by in the blink of an eye. I truly treasure my Fanshawe family and everything this school has taught me. I have made so many memories in these hallways it’s insane. One more walk across the big stage and it’s all over.

I am so sad to leave and uproot my London life. But I can’t wait to see what life has in store. Thank you for allowing me to be your voice these past two years, Fanshawe.