I’ve always believed in the thought that something great is about to happen, but while I sit here, looking around at the people in this newsroom and replaying the memories past that are written on the walls, it is difficult to imagine finding anything that will compare to this place I have called home. I’ve had the great honor of having you readers listen to my words all year, but have lived for the moments that I can’t put into words, knowing that only this group, this family, can read between the lines.

This journey has been more about unbecoming everything that wasn’t really me, to find who I was meant to be in the first place. I had always had a passion for creativity, but it took me a little while to figure out that a job field within this, what is now a lifestyle, was something I could not only plant myself within at UNH, but bloom and flourish, with the care of so many I have met along the way. I think the hardest part about being twenty-something is just not knowing anything about your future, or even just tomorrow.

And now, with graduation in sight, I think back on my four years in Durham. I remember arriving on campus, not knowing anyone, overwhelmed with the excitement of starting a new chapter in my life. What I didn’t know was where it would go or where it should start, and although there are moments I regret, because who doesn’t regret at least one thing they did in college, I wouldn’t go back to change anything. Everyday, I learned something more about myself through experiencing the good and the bad, breaking the rules, falling in love, trusting my gut, dancing from my soul and staying up until 2 a.m. making a newspaper. I simply lived every day filled with these things that I didn’t exactly find, but instead found me, and although I am still experiencing this whirlwind of self-changing, everyday craziness, I am finally realizing that craziness is just another ingredient to happiness.

It was my best friends who made me stay afloat, but also the other students who took rolls of leadership and leaps of courage that truly kept me going. I recently realized that my legacy at UNH will soon turn into another ghost in the MUB, alongside graduates who have made our school a better place and set the bar high for the next generation of MUB rats. Soon it will be Allison Bellucci, who? But that is ok because there is never a shortage of students who care and work tirelessly to change and improve what they can and while they can.

I leave this newsroom with the confidence that this next staff is going to make TNH better than I ever could have, knowing that we did everything we could with our time here, and that the family of TNH newsies will grow and continue traditions of years past. As for me, Wildcats, this may be my goodbye from the pages of The New Hampshire, but I will never forget what a blessing it has been to be your editor. I will miss this staff, this community, this town and the person I am in this moment. It is time to once again, trust the magic of a new beginning.