Aaron Vehling

The Spectator … for me, is a journey that I never want to come to an end. Hibbard Room 108 – that little hallway behind the first-floor bathrooms.

My first time entering The Spectator office was back in the first week of classes during the fall of ’99. It seems like yesterday. It also seemed really intimidating to me when I walked in, but I was soon greeted by the greatest Spectator photographer of all time – my opinion, of course – Ryan McCann. I was too late to join staff that semester, but he trained me to be his replacement the following semester. And so my little journey began …

Four, or so, some-odd years later, I’ve seen many people come and go in this place (geez, I sound like I’m a custodian who’s been here since 1938), and every one of them made a difference – at the paper and in each of us.

For me, this paper is a place where we all can challenge our skills, take a few chances along the way and see what happens. We have all strived as hard as we could, year after year, day after day to make each issue the best it can be. Sure, we’ve forgotten a period here and there, and had a back-to-back the the every now and then … who cares? Well, obviously a number of our readers. Some like to write in and tell us about all the mistakes we’re making. That’s OK, though; we’re all very thankful to have our campus-wide editors.

I will take a lot away from working at this place. Skills, ideas, what works and what doesn’t, communication (actually, I’m still working on that one), but mostly how to take criticism. We get a ton here. An entire campus reads our articles and views our photos with the most critical of eyes. I love to walk by strangers talking about the paper, or see them staring a little bit longer at one of our photos. Being able to take suggestions and criticism is what this place is all about. None of us are professionals. But a lot of us wanna be, so accepting other peoples’ ideas is a must for us. Once again, I’d like to thank all of the critics for calling us on all of our punctuation miscues. This paper depends on your efforts.

I know this paper is widely accepted, and most go out of their way to pick one up come Mondays and Thursdays. It’s been that way as long as I’ve been here. I have had a chance to see many other student-run college papers, and have no problem saying we are the best. “Yeah sure Butch, you’re just saying that ’cause you’ve worked there your whole life.” No really, we’re all pretty lucky … seriously.

With that said, I’d like to thank this paper, and all of its faithful readers. I have put my whole heart into this paper for four years running and I love it dearly. I forever feel connected to its pages and its history. I have joked about my writing skills in the past, and often mocked them in some of my infamous Focus pages (i.e. “Ode to Squirrels,” “How to Carve a Pumpkin” and numerous others I’ve chosen to forget).

But hopefully some of you read this, along with the photos on this page, and get a glimpse of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. With this paper you get all or none, baby. We “put out twice a week” in the hopes of satisfying everyone … and all we can do is try. Thanks for reading.