The time has come for an end of an era. I am officially graduating in 19 days, and the feelings are starting to feel really real.

How is it May already? I feel like I just started school and that September was yesterday, but it was not.

One thing I’ve learned during my time in college is how fast time flies by. One day you are a freshman in college partying every night and then the next, you are a senior who is looking for a full-time job.

I started at a completely different college in a completely different state, I thought that’s where my happiness was. What I learned though is that my happiness was at home with my family. I didn’t need to drink every night or try and act cool to make friends – I just needed to be myself and Mercy gave me that chance.

It’s tough for me to say goodbye to this era. I have learned a lot about life, myself, and my career. I went into college wanting to be an English teacher for younger kids, to a journalist, and now to a Social Media Manager. How the hell did that happen?

College has taught me that life may be tough, but there is always a good outcome to whatever you are working on, and I think The Impact has made me feel that way. I worked my butt off to write articles and news stories, I had deadlines and sometimes I would miss them and feel bad but in the end, what matters is what you wrote and how it touched someone.

Through my writing, I have accomplished a lot. I won two NYPA awards in the top two categories in the year that we won the most awards. First place for News Story, second place for Feature Writing. Since that day I have realized I am capable of more than I think I am. I don’t give myself enough credit for how smart I am, I am constantly thinking about the way I look – not about the person that I have become.

I just want to thank the staff of The Impact for being so good to me. I had my rough days as an Associate and Managing Editor where I would forget things on certain days, but everyone was always patient with me. I want to thank my Associate Editor, James Tiedemann for the friendship we created through this paper. He always pushed me to do better, fixed my grammar issues, and made me confident along the way. He was my right-hand man and provided me with whatever help I needed and he is going to be an amazing Managing Editor.

I also want to thank The Impact for bringing me some of the best of friends I have ever made. Through this paper, I met Valerie Lopez, Jared Naut, and even rekindled an old friendship with Michael Panteleo. I am forever grateful for these people and hope they will stay with me forever.

Lastly, I want to thank Michael Perrota, the man, the myth, and the legend himself. He looked over me and opened a door for me to do well. He invited me onto this paper and he believed in me even when I wouldn’t show up to class 9 out of 10 times. He knew I could do it and he was one of the first teachers to show me my worth in my writing. I will forever be grateful for what he has done for me as a person and also my career.

For right now, I’m pretty certain about what’s going on with my future. I am currently a Marketing Associate for KOVO Essentials, a skincare line and I’m loving every minute of it. I’m learning about the industry and slowly making a name for myself.

That’s all for now, I’ll spill some more tea soon.

-Alexis