Posted on March 29, 2007
All of you (or y’all, if you will) have gotten your wish — I’m outta here
William Shakespeare once wrote that “parting is such sweet sorrow,” a quite insightful statement, since I don’t think the old bastard ever had to graduate and leave JMU.
If I could sum up the last four years of my life at JMU in a word — which, thankfully, is not a requisite for graduation — I would have to go with “unclassifiable.” I have tried my best to flout as many labels as people can make up for me.
For example, I have spent a majority of my time here involved simultaneously in Campus Crusade for Christ and Harmony (now Madison Equality), which is in many ways equivalent to being a Zionist Palestinian refugee. I have also attempted to keep my work at The Breeze equally ambiguous — I have written against the morning-after pill and the marriage amendment, endorsed President Bush in 2004 and have called for his head on a stick over Iraq, rewritten Christmas poems and horoscopes, lauded Christ and lambasted Christians. I stand by all of it.
At the end of the day, I hope I never fit into a clearly defined label at a college where labels are almost the law. Though I must agree with the president that history will decide what did or did not happen, I’d like to think that my time at JMU was spent loving God and my fellow man. And as excited as I am to graduate, I will miss it.
Plankeye, one of the best bands you’ve never heard of, closed their song “Goodbye” with the line: “I never took the time to stop and realize that death takes many forms, even while alive.” As far as JMU is concerned, May 5 is the day I will die, if only because those cursed tuition checks will finally stop coming.
Not to wax philosophical or anything, but as with Jesus and nature, every little death is a beginning as well. Graduation will be the first day of the rest of my life, a life upon which JMU has had an immeasurable impact. I hope and pray that in these four years I was able to give back even a fraction that all of you have given to me. Thank you.
Brian Goodman, Opinion Editor
-------
All the news that’s fit to Breeze
Hellosh. Mishkoff.
The time has come for us, Rachana Dixit and Dominic Desmond, to turn over the reins of our news-editorship to a gang of highly qualified and extremely lethal young journalists. We could only hold out for so long in our Anthony-Seeger bunker. The walls were most assuredly closing in.
If you worked here, you would understand.
This is no time for tears, though. In the end, as long as we get you all, the JMU campus community, to read our stuff, then we have done our job. We have greatly appreciated all the student and faculty letters, story ideas, phone calls and e-mails, which have either commended us for our reporting efforts or called us lazy, insensitive journalists who don’t know how to find real news. Even if we don’t believe the latter of those comments, they, along with The Breeze, have definitely taught us something before we leave our JMU comfort zone in roughly five weeks and get sucked into the vortex of pain and lizard tongue sorrow that is the “real world.”
In short, that means we will miss you and our 25-hour workweeks with all of our Breezers.
To our newbies: Yo yo yo, ya’ll rock. Few could have caught onto this job as quickly as you did. Bless your hearts. And to Mary, our third newsie-turned-editor-in-chief, we could not have had Team News be Team Awesome without you there.
So, there is hope. You students, faculty and staff will still receive a great product on Monday and Thursday mornings without us. They’re may even be less typos.
As Winston Churchill said, “…it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Farewell and Godspeed.
Rachana Dixit and Dominic Desmond, News Editors
-------
Eloquent advice and best of luck
Instead of quoting a famous philosopher or great world leader, I choose to leave you with words from the not-so-famous (and not-so-great?) band The Ataris: “Being grown up isn’t half as fun as growing up/These are the best days of our lives.”
And so goes another four years of my life. Believe me when I say it goes by fast.
Looking back at my time both at The Breeze and at JMU brings smiles as well as tears. The Breeze’s archive room (endearingly nicknamed “The Morgue”) holds issues from the past four years that document the greatest years of my life.
To all those that have stood behind me in the hard times and stood beside me in the good, I thank you with all of my heart. You know who you are.
As for everyone else, I sleep well at night knowing my fellow students are dreaming of crossword puzzles and next issue’s sudoku, so for that I thank you (thanks also for the darts when I screw things up!).
For those that are graduating, we have been through a lot together and I wish you the best in all you do.
For those who get to stick around for several more years (lucky bastards), I urge you to make the most of your time (I mean, how many more years do you have before drunkenly riding down the Village Hill in a shopping cart is no longer appropriate?), and be sure to carry on the traditions of this fine institution of higher learning.
Hold doors open for strangers, sing the Fight Song to tour groups and “Welcome to the Jungle” at football games, crash house parties and meet new best friends while you do, and by all means, streak the Quad at Homecoming. And of course, don’t forget to read The Breeze.
Alicia Stetzer, Copy Editor
-------
Final salute to the late and great
As Online Editor, my name does not appear on too many bylines. Aside from my brilliant guest editor football picks back in September, this is my only published piece of mind. So you better like it.
With my suggested limit of 250 words, I could make some pseudo-intelligent remarks about the dynamic nature of online publications and make some vague predictions about the direction of such mediums. Who knows, I could even use the phrase “Web 2.0” somehow. But that probably wouldn’t keep your attention (sorry SMAD-iators).
Instead, I’m going to use this opportunity to make amends with a certain few local entities. Without further ado, I present my departing apologies:
First off, SafeRides. Yes, I’ll admit it. I was one of the many critics of this enigmatic organization during my first three years here. It was a great organization — it knew how to promote itself, organize fund raisers and create an elaborate three-tiered executive structure — all essential components of a successful organization. However, SafeRides had one minor flaw. It didn’t give safe rides. And here I am, almost four years later, eating my words as SafeRides has blossomed this year into what its founders had originally envisioned. I applaud your perseverance SafeRides and I am sorry I doubted you.
Next on the list, the late Biltmore Grill. I’m still not completely sure why this amazing establishment up and left Harrisonburg, but I hope it’s not totally my fault. If my parents’ FLEX money did not buy enough Thumbs-and-Toes, I apologize. I never should have only ordered the half pound that one time.
Last but not least, the Office of the Registrar. I don’t know how many times I have logged onto e-campus to view my enrollment appointment time only to curse my in-state roommates for transferring meaningless credits from high school. I still don’t think it’s a fair system. Nevertheless, I have still been (almost) Friday-free for two years now and must send my apologies to the masterminds of clusters one through five for my prior complaints. MWF? No thanks. MW for life.
Erik Pitzer, Online Editor
