Dear readers,

I seem to have put off writing this letter for a little too long. A letter that signifies a great transition period and long-standing tradition. As a leader who preaches timeliness and enforces deadlines left and right, I should be utterly ashamed for not respecting these expectations as a journalist. While leading the newsroom, I dealt with many occasions where sometimes life gets in the way, and writers aren’t able to meet their deadlines. Family tragedies, issues with academics, emotional burdens and, sometimes, just the phenomenon of time getting away from us affects a person’s timeliness. A deadline is set, and we accidentally spend too much time lost in the chaos of life that we completely forget the impending finish line.

And honestly? I think that’s exactly what happened to me; why I missed my deadline.

Transitions in life can pose as distractions. They can keep us from remaining caught up on our projects and endeavors. We get too busy, focused on what change in life means for us at this exact moment (What is the universe trying to tell me?!). And then, of course, there are the physical distractions that transition and change pose. You could be too busy studying for a Chemistry final, working on getting graduate school applications turned in, or packing up a place you’ve called home for four years. 

Graduating from college posed a tremendous distraction for me. But on top of getting ready to move off campus, start graduate school and get a full-time job, I was trying to properly say goodbye to the one thing that actually brought my life purpose at St. Edward’s University. 

I arrived on campus in Fall 2020 with unwavering determination to become involved in the university’s student-led newspaper. Not even a worldwide pandemic was going to delay the start of my collegiate journalism career. All it took was a painfully awkward orientation session at the beginning of the semester over Zoom with the then-current Hilltop Views editors and myself. Only myself. 

Seeing my name published online and in print next to news stories, political columns and media reviews for nearly a year gave me the courage to finally ask the budding Editor-in-Chief (EIC), Nina Martinez, for guidance on how to become an editor. And — as I’m sure every farewell letter up to this point says — the rest was history.

For the past two years I served as Editor-in-Chief for Hilltop Views, the St. Edward’s University newspaper. This position fell into my hands after working as News Editor alongside Nina and Co-EIC Elle Bent for a semester. At that point, becoming involved with Hilltop Views started feeling more like the beginning of new-found friendships and doing the work I love every chance I get. So, I continued to take every chance I could get as an editor, writer and leader of this newsroom. 

This is where the thank-you’s come in.

I owe my time at Hilltop Views to Nina and Elle, the newsroom leaders that saw my potential and not only helped me reach it, but also helped me revel in it. I have my first group of teammates — Nina, Melissa, Sienna, Audrey, and Kennady — to thank for my sanity during the first semester of my time as EIC. They are the ones who followed every twist and turn I had to offer as a leader and took their chances and trusted this publication to a girl they hardly knew as a student, as a leader and as a journalist. They were the ones who lived out every new initiative I wanted to introduce or business structure I wanted to try — all the paths we took to attempt to make this publication thrive on the legacy that was left to us. 

I owe thanks to my best friend of eight years Chloe Almendarez, the person who boarded this ship at the perfect time to help me lead it. She was the sour to my sweet, the ying to my yang, the bad cop to my good cop; it’s a delicate balance any business needs to work as a well-oiled machine. 

I have Jena Heath to thank for the inception of becoming involved with Hilltop Views into my mind. Through her advising and journalism courses, I was able to grow as a journalist while simultaneously manning the ship inside of a newsroom. 

Dr. Curt Yowell has to be recognized, too, for he also endured the unpredictability of my first year as Editor-in-Chief. As faculty advisor of Hilltop Views, it is his shoulder that I often found myself leaning on. At the end of the day, it’s always nice to have a real life adult you turn to during great learning experiences as a student journalist and a student leader. There is a quote that hangs on his office bulletin board I always find myself looking at whenever it feels as though I don’t know what I’m doing, especially during apprehensive times: “Leadership is about enabling others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty.”

Finally, I have to thank the HV team I leave behind for my joy. Did I really think I was going to be able to walk away that easily from a group of people I have become so fond of? I am so proud of all of their powerful, meaningful and truthful work that has kept Hilltop Views true to its mission: a mission we have worked tirelessly to execute. 

So, to tell you the truth, I missed the deadline for this farewell letter because I’ve been too distracted by this intense transition — both professionally and personally. I haven’t found the time to sit down and put all these thoughts down on paper. Now that I think about it, we are silly to think that setting a deadline so close to yet another, more distracting deadline was a good idea: a deadline that will stick with me and any student who walks through the red doors for the last time as a Hilltop Views team member more than the deadline for our weekly news brief. (Just a heads up, the deadline for deadline extensions are due 24 hours before your set deadline, per this week’s budget document. Though I don’t think life’s transitions follow the same rule). 

To Hilltop Views, I say KEEP GOING!

Love,

Claire Lawrence