I opened my Facebook on Friday with a feeling of foreboding. I had to do the deed quickly – remove my job as a lifestyles editor at The Crimson White. It felt like a particularly gut-wrenching breakup, primarily because my relationship with the CW has probably been more emotionally nuanced than anything of which your average college guy is capable.

Sure, I’ve complained about my insanely stressful job to anyone who would listen, and many who wouldn’t. It’s basically dominated my life, and I relinquished the concept of free time long ago. I’ve had anything but a relaxing senior year, but I’ve loved it all the same.

Farewell columns have always seemed a bit perplexing to me. They either share a general knowledge about how to succeed at this university, appeal to a select audience with a string of inside jokes, or address problems unique to student journalists that, frankly, few people want to hear, besides other student journalists.

But here goes – some advice from a fellow student (though not for long) who, I’ll admit, doesn’t have a post-college plan and really doesn’t have anything figured out either.

So many people think college is about resume building, or becoming involved in such an inordinate number of activities that you forget what each one is supposed to accomplish. In my four years here, I’ve discovered that the absolute most important thing to do is to find your passion.

Stop thinking you have to do everything on campus in order to be successful. Instead, choose one or two activities and truly, completely devote yourself to being amazing at them. For me, that’s what being a part of The Crimson White staff has been this year. There were definitive moments when I resented every aspect of my job, and there were certainly times when I plotted my revenge on one Victor Luckerson for the seemingly impossible amount of work he would ask of me on a daily basis after casually strolling over to my desk.

Despite those already forgotten frustrations, this year’s CW staff became my family. I’ve had the opportunity to do some awesome things – take a private tour of the new amphitheater and run out of the tunnel onto the field in Bryant-Denny, to name just a couple – but by far the best part of my job has been the people with whom I’ve had the privilege of working with for one short year.

Throughout this year, the entire CW staff went from being strangers to some of the most important people in my life. I’ve shared more with this admittedly odd assortment of people than with almost anyone else. Let’s just say we could have made a pretty interesting reality show, a la “The Real World” newsroom-style.

I’ve laughed with them more times than I can count as we deliriously worked late nights in the newsroom, cried with them (if only to be as awkward as humanly possible), suffered through a trip to Troy with them, argued with them about things both personal and professional, drank with them to reconcile said arguments and ultimately spent the majority of my time around them, both in and out of the newsroom.

I’m not going to thank my parents, my dog (what up, Rowdy) or that one really inspiring person I had a conversation with at The Gray Lady last week or anything, but thanks are definitely in order.

Thanks to Victor and Jon, for being arguably the best prepared people to deal with all of our newsroom shenanigans. Thanks to all of the other desk editors for often sacrificing grades or spending time with friends because they cared about their jobs enough to create something special. Thanks to Brandee and Emily for venting with me and for also making sure that the rest of us newsroom noobs survived at this whole making-a-paper thing. Thanks to anyone who offered to help me out when I felt overwhelmed – Will Tucker – or made me laugh when I was frustrated – Tray Smith and Daniel Roth.

Cue the cheesiness: I can honestly say that this year has been indescribably amazing because of you guys. I’m honored to have worked with so many smart, talented people. I really can’t express everything I could possibly want to say here, so thanks for putting up with me. I love you all more than you know.

Kelsey Stein was the Lifestyles Editor of The Crimson White for the 2010 – 2011 school year.