Growing up, I always wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to cover hard-hitting news, travel the world and live a glamorous lifestyle.

So when sixth grade rolled around, I applied to the junior high newspaper.

I wasn’t hired. 

But that didn’t kill my dream. My freshman year of college, I took Journalism I taught by a former professional journalist. But a month in, I dropped the course, and eventually I left the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

Three years later came my first semester at St. Edward’s University, along with my first Hilltop Views meeting. Soon, I was writing a story every week. My second semester, I signed up for Jena Heath’s Journalism I. Though I didn’t know it at the time, I was taking the class with some of my future co-workers. 

And when the Life & Arts editors, including Mitch Harris, asked me to write my own food column, I also didn’t know it would lead to a position as a staff editor.

In the last two years working with Hilltop Views, I’ve learned a few things. Writing and editing can be stressful. Working in newspapers is not a glamorous job. And I’m not sure I want to be a journalist.

But as hard as this job could be at times, it was also one of most rewarding experiences I could have hoped for. I had some good laughs and made some great friends, and I’ll never forget any of the giggly Monday nights spent in André 117.