From the day I started at the Sunflower, the people I worked with made me feel like I belonged. It didn’t take long after being hired to feel the closeness inherent with being part of a newsroom.

In March 2013, I was let go from a marketing internship I loved. Feeling broken down, beaten, confused and uncertain of my abilities and my future, I dropped by one of my professor’s offices for guidance. She recommended applying at the Sunflower to put the journalism degree I was studying for to work.

It turns out that losing that internship was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. I had so many amazing experiences as an employee of the paper that I would not have had otherwise.

I would never have met so many interesting people, made the new friends I have or taken some of the travels I have had the opportunity to. I most certainly would have never lived out my dream of being a photographer on the basketball court for one of the best teams in the country.

Going to the NCAA tournament as a writer and photographer, traveling with the team and staying in a hotel with a view of beautiful Busch Stadium is an experience I may never have again, and will certainly never forget.

All the monster jams by Tekele Cotton, playmaking by Fred VanVleet and high scoring by Cleanthony Early I got to witness would be nothing if it weren’t for the faith and encouragement of my coworkers, though.

Even in the midst of transferring pictures and stories to my phone in order to email them on the way back from St. Louis to meet deadline, my friends in the office showed nothing but faith.

I would be nothing if it weren’t for them and the confidence they share — a confidence I had lost before joining the staff. To say those people and this paper mean a lot to me is an understatement.

But as the saying goes, “All good things must come to an end.”

Though I am sad to see the end of my short career as a student journalist, I hope to share that same faith in the staff I am leaving behind.

So it is with a heavy heart that I bid the students and staff at this university farewell. Words cannot begin to describe how much this school and the experiences I have had by being a part of it mean to me.

Stay classy Wichita State, until we meet again.