Elisabeth’s farewell
It’s time to move on
Six years ago, I enrolled at the University of Regina. During welcome week, I visited the Carillon newspaper’s table and made the decision to sign up to receive the pitch list, (a list of potential topics to write about for the upcoming issue). At that time, I was excited to get involved with this paper because writing for a school newspaper was something I had always been interested in doing, but had never previously had the chance to do.
I can honestly say that decision was one of the best ones I made as a U of R student.
Despite changing direction a few times my degree program, writing for the Carillon has been something I have continued to do for the past six years. Although it has involved a ton of work, time, effort, and significant frustration, writing for the Carillon has been an incredible opportunity that I would never wish to replace, or even take back.
About three weeks into my first semester, my first Carillon article came out, a review for the arts and culture section about my dissatisfaction with Taylor Swift’s new single, “Shake It Off.” Even though it sounds cheesy, it was super exciting to see my name in print, in a newspaper for an article I had written. To be honest, for me, this feeling has never gone away. Every Thursday when a new issue came out I always got excited picking up a copy and flipping through to check out the article(s) I had written.
From that week up until now, I have been an avid writer for the Carillon, writing one to two articles each week. Initially I began as a contributor, writing light-hearted articles about current events, as well as few book reviews for the Arts and Culture section. During my second year, I switched to writing articles for the op-ed section after becoming pissed off by a decision the Regina Catholic School Board made in relation to my high school. I enjoyed writing op-ed articles because I could write about issues and situations that I not only disagreed with, but also found frustrating and upsetting.
Over the next couple years, I remained a reliable contributor, switching back and forth between writing arts and culture and op-ed articles. Being a contributor was nice because I could write articles whenever I had the time, but was never obligated or expected to write anything. However, the main downside to being a contributor, was that at that time, it was an unpaid position.
A year and a half ago, a staff writer position became available and I applied right away. Despite my worry over how the interview went, I guess I actually answered the questions better than I thought because I got this position.
As a staff writer, you are expected to write two articles a week for two different sections. At first this worried me, since I had only ever previously written Arts and Culture and Op-ed articles. The first week, I was given a Sports article to write and I remember feeling worried that I would ultimately screw up, because even though I enjoy sports, I had never written a sports article before. However, it definitely helped that my topic was interviewing a classmate of mine whom I knew. As a result, my article actually turned out better than I had anticipated. Oddly enough, the sports section quickly became one of my favourite sections to write for.
Throughout my time as a staff writer, I have written multiple articles for News, A/C, Sports and Op-Ed, covering current local and national events and expressing my views and opinions. I always tried my best to write about what either what interested or was important to me and as a result, I’ve been able to write about a variety of exciting topics, including an interview with the Lavoie sisters, Christian Sinclair’s international soccer record, numerous historical book reviews, as well as articles ranting about the stupid decisions and actions made by politicians.
I’ll be honest, writing for the Carillon has had its fair share of difficulties, including always finding the time to research and write two articles every week, waiting for responses from people, errors in publication [EIC’s note: my bad] and of course struggling to find the right words to express my thoughts. Despite these challenges, writing for the Carillon has enabled me to not only improve my writing, but also learn more about myself and what is important to me.
For anyone unsure of whether to get involved with the Carillon even if just contributing an article, I would encourage you to go for it because it is an awesome, and incredibly rewarding experience, and you get paid for it.
Before I officially sign off, I have a few thank yous. Firstly, I want to say thanks to John for not only letting me know about the available staff writer position, but also for giving me a chance when you hired me a year and a half ago.
Secondly, I want to thank all the editors who I have worked with over the past six years, especially the most recent ones Taylor, Sara, Ethan, and Tyler. Thank you for allowing me to write for your sections, being flexible with my changes in both topic choice and word count, and for always being willing to let me write on my own proposed topics. I have enjoyed working with all of you and I wish you all the best.
Lastly, thank you to everyone who has ever contributed my articles, offered suggestions and taken the time to read them.
While I am incredibly sad that my time writing for the Carillon has come to an end, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to write for this paper, as both a contributor and an official staff member, and I am leaving it behind knowing that I left everything I had on the page.
