I just got done filming this year’s last episode of Castletalk with Gonzo. And even though Castletalk will continue, it was the last episode that I’ll ever film.  

Tomorrow is the last Spartan meeting for the last issue I’ll ever write or edit for. 

Sunday is the last time I’ll design pages for the Spartan.  

I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve spent the last year thinking about the Spartan every day. And soon, I won’t have to anymore. 

I won’t get to.  

I’m going to miss chatting with Dave in his office. Texting him almost every day about story updates or where we’re at with the budget, running interview questions by him.  

I’m going to miss chilling with Pearl and Jess in the Spartan office. Justin popping in and having to listen to us talk about things he doesn’t care about. 

I’m going to miss walking around campus with Gonzo, his mic and a camera every other Wednesday.  

I think I might even miss having to scramble and send out texts at the last minute when stories aren’t in.  

And to think – I wouldn’t have been the editor of this paper, might not have even continued writing stories and changed my concentration to journalism, if Dave hadn’t told me to come to “just one meeting.”  

We like to joke that that’s how he gets you.  

But I’m grateful that he did. 

And I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to work with and write with everyone on the Spartan staff.  

I’ve always been a little bit of an overachiever – not in the cut-throat competitor kind of way, but in the kind of way where everything I do has to be “perfect.” And if it’s not, then I can’t let it go until it is.  

That’s probably why I like editing. 

Why I like meticulously adjusting the text boxes on an InDesign document until all of the edges line up. 

Why I like rewording sentences until the words convey exactly what I’m trying to say.  

But maybe that’s also why the thought of graduating, of leaving the Spartan and everything I’ve done at Castleton behind, feels so weird to me.  

It feels unfinished.  

Does that make sense?  

We’ve spent our entire lives in school, minus the first few years and, for me, that year and a half when I was 19. 

And suddenly, it’s over. 

Or it’s about to be. 

In just 10 days.  

I’m ready to graduate, to be done with school.  

But I’ve basically spent the last year in the Spartan office. Doing homework, writing stories, going over the final version of each issue every Monday.  

And I don’t feel super ready to leave that behind. Especially when I don’t know what’s next. 

Everyone keeps saying things like “you’ll be great, the world is your oyster!” and I guess I have no choice but to believe them.  

P.S. bye forever – Mason Parece