A Trendy Farewell

By: Kerry Ingram, Arts & Life Editor
Courtesy of Jasmine Anderson

 

Hi, Towson Tigers. This is Kerry Ingram, officially writing to you from The Towerlight for the very last time.

For those of you who may be unaware, ya girl is officially in her last month of her undergraduate college career. I am so excited to graduate and finish off another amazing chapter, but it also means I have to have closure with a lot of different things I’ve become accustomed to over the last four years of my life. The Towerlight is one of those things.

When I came to Towson, I knew I wanted to be a part of this newspaper my first day. I was determined to find out more about the paper, I hunted down the Towerlight’s table at the regular involvement fair the campus held, and I immediately signed my name down to be part of the video crew. As a commuter student with a very limited schedule, I quickly realized I had no availability to cover any videos my freshman year, so I yeeted out of the group with no words or heads up.

I decided to try again with more determination my sophomore year, and that’s when my relationship with this paper officially began. I wanted to write about something I liked, to ensure that my writing would be authentic and consistent, and so I decided to pitch the idea of starting Trendy Tiger.

When I began Trendy Tiger back in fall 2016, I never really thought about it ending. I was a beginning journalist then, a little college sophomore with no real writing experience but an abundance of passion for fashion and using my voice. I went from being a faceless columnist to becoming part of the editorial staff, to even rebooting and rebranding the newspaper’s YouTube channel. My semesters here came and went, with each being filled with a lot of work, new experiences and life lessons that I gained at this paper.

The Towerlight taught me to be consistent, to stick to deadlines, to think outside of the box while also thinking about what people want to read. It taught me to be a better editor, to break outside of my comfort zone and to open up to others in the most authentic and true-telling way, whether it be through my in-person interactions with my co-workers/friends or through my writing.

As grateful as I am for all of that, I think I am most grateful for the people that make up The Towerlight itself. This staff is one-of-a-kind, and I know that I am completely biased in saying this, however I truly feel like this crew is one of the best on campus. We meet every Monday (the most dreaded day of the week, might I add) to work diligently while also still managing to have fun with one another. We’ve become a true family here, with ups and downs, great jokes and bad puns, support and loyalty, patience and understanding.

I’m going to miss working with Karuga, one of the coolest people I’ve met at Towson and my home skillet biscuit, on a weekly basis. I’m going to miss Bailey’s laughter whenever she cracks a joke in the dead silence of the office, to help add some light to our days. I’m going to miss Mel’s relationship stories, their uniqueness leaving me both in shock and amusement. I’m going to miss Tim being my early-morning-buddy and one of the only other people who is actually fully alive before noon. I’m going to miss Tori and her subscription box unboxings she shares with me every other week in our corner of the office. I’m going to miss Brendan and his old-man tangents of explaining things in so specific detail that it makes you wonder where the heck he stores all of this information. And of course, I’m going to miss Mike and his dealing with us on a regular basis, despite how random we all may be.

Being a part of The Towerlight was one of the best decisions I could have ever made, and it really pains me that today marks the last day of my time here. I can’t say thank you enough to everyone I’ve gotten the chance to work with, from older staffs to our current, as well as to my section’s writers and contributors. You all have made my college experience truly beautiful, and I hope that you know that you will always hold a special place in my heart.

So here’s to looking at the future with rose-colored readers, my friends. Because reading is fundamental, and reading The Towerlight, more specifically, is all the more worthwhile.

 

Until we meet again,

         Kerry Ingram

Leave a Reply

Close

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.