I am incredibly proud of the four years I have spent working at The Daily Cardinal. It is something that has impacted my life in innumerable ways, and I am sincerely grateful for the opportunities I have been given.
I am particularly proud of the accomplishments and strides the paper has made in the past year, including earning 25 awards, releasing over a dozen special editions, continuing investigative coverage and unveiling a revamped website, to name a few.
But all of those things are not necessarily what I remember most about working here or what I think is most important. If a freshman asked me, ""Why should I work at a student newspaper?,"" peripheral benefits like awards would not be the first thing on my list to convince them to sign up for long hours, deadlines, unresponsive sources and the stress of taking on a demanding job.
In fact, all of those things contribute to the real and lasting benefit of the experience, the ability to take on more responsibility and face more pressure than one would normally encounter as a student. It is one thing to say you had an internship, but they didn't let you do a lot or go after the big stories, and when your six months ended and all you had was something on your resume.
It is entirely different to have the opportunity to cover a politically charged rally in sweltering heat, get spit on by protestors and then find out you have to take the photos of the event because the photographer was held up at another assignment.
If being a student journalist does anything, it empowers people to realize that they do not have to accept the status quo, either in themselves or the community they report on.
When you realize that powerful people will angrily demand that you resign over something you wrote, that the relative of a murder victim is a real person whom you are asking for details about their loved one and that maybe, hopefully, your article may have an impact that is longer than 24 hours, you step through a door and become a changed person. There's no turning back after that.
Perhaps most importantly, the experience allows you to make mistakes. I think it is easy to think about successes and big, gaudy accomplishments, but I have learned more from the decisions where I was wrong, the kind that are made at 2:00 a.m. when no one else was around, than I have from any other. I will remember for the rest of my life some of the mistakes I've made here, the kind that continue to influence my decision making and leave an imprint on my mind that is not easily erased.
I also have immense admiration for the competitive spirit that develops on this campus between two competing newspapers. I have an incredible amount of respect for The Badger Herald staff and the commitment they have to their newspaper. The Daily Cardinal is a better paper for having to compete against them, and I am grateful for their impressive tenacity and dedication.
And so if there is anyone reading this who wants to get that same sort of experience, the kind where you may get a call at midnight when it's snowing and police sirens are going off and there is no one else around to cover the story but you, stop by our office next year. It changed my life and I know it can do the same for yours.
Charles Brace will be walking across the stage at graduation in two weeks. He plans to apply to law schools this coming fall. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
