Alicia Dye | News Editor
Dec. 1, 2022
If you asked me in 2019, my freshman year of college, if I would ever consider myself a journalist, I would say no, even though at the time I was double majoring, with my second major being multiplatform journalism. If you asked me if I planned on working for the campus newspaper, I would’ve laughed at the question. I always saw journalism as a backup plan, something I would do if political science didn’t work out, as plenty of people who couldn’t find a job in the political science field ended up doing political journalism. I even changed journalism from my second major to my minor because I didn’t think of it as something that interested me a lot.
Fast-forward to now, where journalism is one of my favorite things (most weeks). I love writing profiles on different people, and I love doing a story I consider important. Being able to report things that are going on in the community, even if not many read it, warms my heart. I love being able to serve a community, no matter how I do it, and my time at The Duke has allowed me to do that.
Although I haven’t been on staff long, my time as a staff writer and then news editor has been rewarding. I’ve learned a lot and made new friends who I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.
I have to thank our advisor, Paula Reed Ward, for really sparking my interest in journalism. I took her class last fall, and it was the first journalism class I took in my college career. Although my class wasn’t super enthusiastic about the things we were learning, I was. I loved learning how to write certain stories and I loved being able to get a small taste of what writing was like.
Paula was the one who encouraged me to write for The Duke. Actually, she told me to write for The Duke multiple times throughout the fall semester, so I could have experience even if I didn’t want to go into that field. Every time she told me to write during the fall, I brushed it off saying I was too busy being a resident assistant, which was a way of me getting out of it because I hated meeting new people and being thrown into a new environment.
I ended up joining the next semester, as I did have plenty of time. I wrote almost every week, for every section except sports. And I loved every second of it. I was learning about what was going on around campus and got to meet so many new people, and got closer with many. From making jokes about hating dairy milk, to making silly bets on what time someone would show up to the newsroom every week (which I take way too seriously), the time has been fun.
Although there have been stressful weeks, there have also been weeks where I can’t stop laughing, to the point where my stomach hurt from laughing too much.
I think if I didn’t have Paula for my newsroom class, I wouldn’t like journalism as much as I do. She helped me to become the journalist I am today, and for that, I am forever thankful.
My time at Duquesne as a whole has been eventful. I was part of the last group of students to start college before Covid-19 hit. Although the pandemic affected many things, I have to thank it for helping me become friends with so many I am still friends with today. A lot of my current friends and I didn’t have much to do during the pandemic when we all lived together, so we all hung out with each other, only going out to eat on occasion and keeping us in each other’s bubbles.
The spring semester of my sophomore year, I became an RA. Although many are warned that the job can be lonely and isolating, I made some great friends through the job, who helped me along the way with so many things, even beyond our job together.
I’m going to miss going to Starbucks on campus and seeing the employees who know my name and order, specifically Melissa, who always knew what I wanted and has always talked to me, even when she isn’t working.
I never really planned to graduate early. I actually expected to graduate a semester late. The time has flown by so fast, that it’s really hard to believe. Everything is falling into place, but much sooner than I expected.
I’ve never been great at goodbyes, being that I come across somewhat emotionless and cold, but I’ll really miss being here most months of the year.