A new semester and I am officially the Managing Editor of this paper. Who would have ever thought that I would make it this far? 

Definitely not me.

I am now officially in my last semester of college, ever. 

I have been through some of the trying times while in college and I watched myself grow into this human I never thought I would be. I am now a hardworking, Dean’s List earning student. 

At my original college, I was focused on partying and boys, while this was fun I slowly found myself slipping into a depression. My grades were horrible, I had little to no friends, and all I had was alcohol that I eventually got tired of. My party life was a front to who I actually was because as of now, I rarely drink or even get drunk. Sure a glass of wine is nice with dinner but that’s pretty much as exciting as it gets for me now.

When I transferred into Mercy College I was a failing student with a GPA of about 2.3. I was severely anxious and depressed, barely attending classes, and in a mentally abusive relationship.  

I was truly a mess, I had no idea what I wanted to do in life, I was barely involved with Mercy and just hated everything surrounding it. It took me a full semester at Mercy to figure out what I was best at.

That was until I took a Sports Reporting class and fell in love with it, I loved writing and telling stories. Giving other people the platform to tell their stories that others might not know about them. For that class, I wrote a story about my grandpa who wrestled for Iran. America wanted him here and helped him gain citizenship and it was a story a lot of people did not know about him and I was glad to tell it. 

During this semester, I found out Mercy had a newspaper and I knew I wanted to be on it and I joined it the next semester. I took a huge step and became Social Media Editor and basically self-taught myself the dos and don’ts of all social media platforms. This was a risk for me because I didn’t want to ruin what was already built but I tried my best to make it better and I think I did. 

The socials slowly became my babies and I didn’t want to give them up and still until this day I run them. I have to plan to pass them off in the future as I graduate and I hope I can help whoever comes next. 

Around this time I also came over my social anxiety and fear of public speaking as an Orientation Leader. I had to be a leader for the new freshman coming to Mercy, I had to speak to a room full of parents and kids and I will not lie, I was terrified but I had a team who backed me up and told me I could do it. Ever since then, I can walk into a room with my head held high and speak almost perfectly (everyone has their slip-ups!)

Last semester, I was asked to be Associate Editor and I cried when I was asked. I truly couldn’t believe how far I came. Little old me being a right-hand woman to the Managing Editor? Never in my life have I had an opportunity and I did everything I could to not mess it up and now we’re here as a Managing Editor in the new year of 2021. 

While I have no idea what the future holds for me, I know it’ll be good.