Editorial: One semester left

One left. Wow. Just writing it felt strange. I know I have said this before, but it really does feel like I just got here. Maybe it is because I only had one full semester of a “normal” college experience before the COVID-19 pandemic. Sometimes I feel like I got cheated, but you should not dwell on these kinds of things. Plenty of people have had it far worse than me, especially with regard to the coronavirus. I am the only person in my immediate family who still has not tested positive, and I am very grateful for that. With my second to last semester almost over, and this being our last issue of the semester, I can honestly say that this has been the most exhausting, stressful, work-heavy period of my entire life. This is my first semester as Editor-in-Chief of the Hawks’ Herald, and I have been managing that in addition to my classes while also working an internship 10 hours a week. Simply put, I am tired. Thanksgiving break felt like a 20-minute nap, and winter break cannot possibly come soon enough. While I try to keep in mind everything I have accomplished, I have always been my own worst critic, and it is very difficult for me to accept praise from anyone, most of all myself. Whatever I do, I always think it is not enough, and that I should be doing better. I think of the great editor-in-chiefs the paper has had, and I remember them being much better students, better journalists and better leaders. I remember when I was a sophomore on the paper thinking “I’d like to do that. I think I could be good at it.” Am I a good editor-in-chief? I honestly cannot say. Am I a great editor-in-chief? No. I can admit that. But I want to be. I am going to take this break and use it to analyze everything I did with the Hawks’ Herald this semester: what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I can do better, so when I come back in the spring, I will be the kind of editor in chief that the Hawks’ Herald deserves. I want to thank my incredible staff for everything they have done because I would not have been able to do any of this without them. This semester was definitely a learning curve for me, but they have exceeded my expectations and I am very grateful.