Three years at The Crimson White has created more memories, experiences and moments than one can really handle. I have seen people scream, blow up, create awkward situations and fight. However, after physically working in a newsroom for the past year, I realized why all of those situations happened: passion for the paper.

I started out as a contributing writer and moved to assistant news editor in those three years, and I have many people to thank who got me to where I am right now. Of course, I have to thank Victor Luckerson for hiring me. It was an honor and privilege to work on the news desk, and I have learned more about journalism in the past year than in my entire collegiate career combined. If it wasn’t for Victor’s emails that constantly said, “Do This,” in the subject head, I would never know what the real world will be like.

Next, I have to thank Hannah Mask (Pannah) and William J. Tucker (Baby Will) for putting up with my obnoxious organization and my pestering to get things done. They have been the best co-workers I have ever had, and I don’t think the news desk would have really functioned without either of them. So here’s to the long nights and the many adult beverages consumed at El Rincon.

Thanks to my paid reporters who put up with the annoying text massages, massive numbers of emails and constant phone calls. William Evans, Amanda Sams, Katherine Martin, Taylor Holland, Jennie Kushner, Brittney Knox and Stephen Dethrage, you all are amazing reporters, and I hope that in the future you continue to work as hard as you worked for us. For my contributing writers, you all were outstanding, and I know a lot of you will be moving to bigger positions next year. I wish you the best of luck in learning and growing as journalists.

As for the overall staff, it has been a long, crazy and sometimes frustrating year, but I think we have all grown together, because we all had a passion to make this paper thing work. We all had one drive and one goal, and that was to make this paper better than it’s ever been. In my opinion, we succeeded as a team.

I have to thank The University of Alabama. It has been my home away from home for four years, and I don’t know what I’ll do when I can’t wake up on a Saturday to the smell of a grill and people yelling “Roll Tide.” Thank you for four years of great football, great food, great people and great memories. I will carry a piece of Tuscaloosa wherever I go in my future, because you were truly the beginning for me.

My time at the University and the paper is coming to a close, but I know others will come and make the paper even greater in the future. I wish the best of luck to the upcoming staff, and I give them the challenge of showing the student body that The Crimson White is not just another student newspaper. It’s a unique paper that shows the passion of a staff to produce a great product every day, and that passion shows up on the front page. It shows up when we work weekends and long nights, and fights tooth and nail to inform the student body of the real news on campus. I will miss you all, and I wish you all the best.

Patty Vaughan was an Assistant News Editor of The Crimson White for the 2010 – 2011 school year.