A farewell from the editor-in-chief

author: matt wincherauk | editor-in-chief

Credit: Ella Mikkola

I would be running the student newspaper, responsible for 16 other staff members, and writing a 40-page paper over the course of eight months, I would have…well, I would’ve done something dramatic.

It is the end of an era …okay, that may be a bit overdramatic.

Come April 30, my tenure as the Editor-in-Chief of the Carillon will have come to an end, and I will find myself asking the question: what’s next? It has been two whole, frustrating, wonderful, stressful, rewarding years as the EIC to go along with my one year as the sports writer/sports editor. As I sit here writing this, I find that I’m at least somewhat of a different person. I’m not going to tell you that everything has changed, food tastes better, and colours appear more vibrant, but I am certainly a different person, and definitely a different student. I have gone from a journalism student, with plans on eventually getting an M.A. degree at the University of Regina’s own journalism school, to an English student, heading off to Ontario next year to join Trent University’s English graduate program. I have gone from the person who occasionally finds himself in the office, to the person that can’t seem to leave it. I’ve even gone from a rather average student to an honours student in less than three years. If you had told me that I would be running the student newspaper, responsible for 16 other staff members, and writing a 40-page paper over the course of eight months, I would have…well, I would’ve done something dramatic.

I think this growth is the ultimate thing that I have taken away from my time at the Carillon and my time at the University of Regina in general. I originally started as the regular student who spent the necessary time at school and went home. I didn’t interact with anyone outside of my high school friends, I didn’t partake in any social events on campus, and I certainly didn’t do extracurricular work. So, with everything that has happened in the past three years, what is the greatest lesson I have learned? The most daunting challenges are the greatest opportunities.

There’s something incredibly satisfying about coming up with a new challenge, whether that be in academics, your work life, or in your personal life. I have faced a whole number of different challenges, moving from one position to the next, as well as the increasing levels of commitment to my schoolwork. Run a section of a newspaper? Check. Run the newspaper entirely? Check. Present a conference paper in front of your peers? Check. Apply to a school outside your perceived league? Check (and they said yes!). Each one of these different challenges provided me with the confidence to tackle the next one, like each time I’m moving up to a different boxing weight class. I started with the flyweights, but now I’m hanging with the heavyweights, and even though I get tagged now and then, I get back up and hit back.

In addition to presenting me with a number of new challenges, the Carillon has also opened me up to so many different people, with so many differing views, which I feel has made me a significantly more well rounded person as a result. They have all given blood, sweat, and tears to this paper, and even though I’m sure they sometimes wanted to tear my head off, they always treated me with incredible respect and made this paper a fantastic place to work. Getting to know each and every one of them was a blessing, and I know that I have made numerous life-long friendships as a result.

In closing, I believe that every student needs to get involved with something like the Carillon. While I would love it if you did choose to apply for a position, or even become a contributor, it is just as important that you find something on campus to become a part of, whether that be URSU, RPIRG, your department students’ association, or whatever. Find something that you can invest yourself in, and make it something better through your efforts. Take that leap into the unknown, and I know that you will be all the better for it.

As for May 1, the first Carillon-less day in three years, I look toward what’s coming next. Not just graduate school in the fall, but the stuff that will come after that. I’m not sure what my next challenge will be, but regardless of what it is, I have just one thing to say: challenge fucking accepted.