Ending on a High Note

Anjuli Blair, editor assistant

This wasn’t supposed to be a farewell piece, but it is, and it makes me sad.

It is usually pretty easy for me to find something to write about, especially when I am writing an opinion and the possibilities are endless.  It is incredibly frustrating that this is my last issue, and this is the only issue that I haven’t known exactly what I want my article to be about. 

Maybe it is because this is the only semester that I’ve been on the Plainsman Press staff, and there has been so much that I wanted to do and write about that I didn’t get to.  Or maybe it’s because nothing seems fitting to be my last piece.  Some of the other writers and editors who have been here for many semesters are writing farewell articles, but I have only been here for one semester (my first and last semester).  Even though I will transfer to Texas Tech in the fall, a farewell opinion doesn’t seem fitting, because I haven’t been here long enough to feel like I will be missed.

Also, I feel that I should write about something happy and uplifting. After all, my last two opinions have basically been about me going on a rant, hopping up on my little soapbox and using writing as an outlet for frustration and everything else that has been going on this semester.

It’s a little amusing, because now Charlie is always saying, “When Anjuli vents, she really vents,” just because I wrote more than 1,100 words about why some people should not be allowed to dine-out, and what they should know if they decide to anyway.  That was one issue after I went off about how our generation, mainly girls, has an inherent lack of self-respect.  It isn’t that I’m not a happy person and don’t have anything good to say. I’ve always heard that you should write about what you are passionate about, and I suppose that lately I have been passionately pissed off, at least on deadline day, so I went with it.  I guess it worked.

I have recently been inspired by the children who I keep in the nursery I work in, and I have been wanting to write about how wonderful it is to be a child and how there is so much that we can learn from them.  At the same time, I have been wanting to write about how generous people can be, and that there are still good people in the world, even if it is being run by greed, selfish ambition, lust, power, etc...  So, ha, Charlie!! I can write happy articles. 

I think the real reason why I haven’t been able to decide what to write about is because I just don’t want to leave.  I hate goodbyes, and frankly I’m not very good at them.  Writing a farewell piece would mean that I would have to actually admit that I am going to miss everything about being on the staff and all the talented, incredible people who I have worked with this semester, and I don’t really think I am ready for that just yet. 

But, it is true.  I have gained such valuable knowledge during my time on the staff, and I have grown in a way that only one can through experiencing being the newest member of the team and not really knowing what the heck is going on.  The people I have met are spectacular and so very talented.  The thought of not seeing them and working with them on a regular basis leaves me heartbroken, and I don’t even want to think about the fact that I may not see many of them ever again. 

I want all of them to know how talented and extraordinary they are, and how much I admire them and everything they do.  So, it seems to be that my dilemma is not a bad case of writer’s block, but denial in its most frustrating form. 

I suppose that this is why I want to be a writer and an editor, because writing is such good therapy.  It’s a way to vent and rant without having to yell at anyone, and it’s a way to say goodbye to your family without actually having to speak the words or cry the tears.