I will be a Goshen College graduate in less than two weeks. Woah.

I know it’s a cliche, but it feels like just yesterday I was arriving at Goshen College as a nervous first-year student eager to embark on the four year journey that is college. And now here I am, preparing to graduate and wrapping up my last issue of The Record as editor-in-chief.

Seriously, how did that happen so fast?

Over the last four years I have grown to love this small Indiana community where the weather is cool and the students are cooler. From squirrels, to hymn sings, to Paul Keim’s beard, there is something uniquely special about Goshen College.

For me, the thought of saying goodbye to the place I call home is kind of depressing. So naturally, I’m doing what I always do: procrastinating.

It turns out that it’s really easy to avoid something when you have four major assignments to focus on instead. All week I’ve been burying myself in my work and putting off thinking about graduation. But I know that, at some point, I will have to face reality and say a proper goodbye to this funny little place called Goshen.

In the meantime, I am putting all my energy into finishing my last issue of The Record, a newspaper that has essentially become my life this semester. For better or worse, The Record will remain one of my most memorable experiences in college.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who made The Record possible this semester: the reporters, who impressed me with their thoughtful stories; the page editors, who worked their butts off writing and assigning stories each week; the copy editors, who fixed everyone else’s mistakes; the photographers, who illustrated our stories with beautiful photos; and the layout team, who worked late hours putting it all together. You guys are awesome.

And to all you readers, thanks for picking up the paper week after week. It’s truly a joy to see people reading and discussing the paper on Thursdays at lunch. You remind me each week how lucky I am to be part of this paper and this college.