I love this bunch of goons. Let’s get that out of the way right now.

Chance, Jenna, Matt, Kelly, Maddie, Kylie, Evan, Nicole, and Ray, thank you. It’s your fault I’m the journalist and person that I am. You’re all an inspiration. I don’t consider myself nearly as talented as any single one of you but, damn it, I’m trying my best. I owe so much to you all. I could list all the things I admire about each of you, but we’d be here all day.

I can’t even begin to calculate the amount of time I’ve spent in the basement of Elliott Hall with this offensively talented group of people. We’ve been here so late that I’ve thought about just sleeping on the couch. There’ve been so many late nights when we still ended up talking in the parking lot for an hour after production. We work hard and we play harder and we win awards. That’s what we’re good at. The newsroom will forever be littered with the scars of our foolery.

The road trips, the flights, the parties, the productions, all the memories we made are so special to me. It’s been a helluva ride.

I’m not crying, you’re crying!

Now, that I’ve gotten the mushy stuff out of the way, for the actual farewells.

I’m a fan of the ol’ Irish goodbye, so I’ll keep this brief.

I will always go to bat for any of you. If you need anything, ever. I got you, fam.

In the immortal words of Evidence, “We could go our separate ways but the songs remain . . . worst come to worst, my peoples come first.” And you’re all my people.

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Brian Hayes

Amy: The best adviser there ever was. Thanks for putting up with our shenanigans. I didn’t always agree with you but I learned so much from you. I always took your advice and it’s taken me a lot of places. You’ve taught me real life lessons.