By Delaney Hiegert, former Editor-In-Chief
I always knew saying goodbye to The Vantage would be tough. I just didn’t know it was going to be this hard.
Like literally, this is hard. I had surgery last week on my elbow and I have only one working hand to type with at the moment.
It’s also hard to find the words to summarize just how much being a member of The Vantage staff these past four years has meant.
My freshman year I found myself sitting in my first Vantage meeting, listening to a charismatic lady with curly brown hair tell me how I just had to join the staff.
That lady was Denise Neil, our newspaper’s adviser.
Four years, three internships and countless late-night layouts later, I know that Denise was right.
My time on The Vantage staff allowed me to grow as a writer and as a person, opening doors for me in the field of journalism and ultimately stamping my ticket to law school.
But it also introduced me to some truly amazing people and left me with countless memories.
I’ve made great friends and worked with incredibly talented staffs – including my first Editor-In-Chief and current Wichita Eagle reporter Matt Riedl and The Vantage’s soon-to-be Editor-In-Chief Courtney Klaus.
However, I can’t look back on my time with The Vantage and not highlight one person in particular: that curly-haired lady from a few paragraphs ago.
Denise Neil has helped me to become the journalist and person I am today, and Newman University could not be more lucky to have snagged her as an adjunct professor. She is a mentor, role model and dear friend and I am so insanely happy I got to sit in her classroom and on her staff for four years.
She brought me dinner when I was holed up in the layout room, answered an unnecessary amount of late-night phone calls with editing questions and reminded me that writing is, well, fun. She taught me how to chase the big stories and how to not take myself too seriously (Trust me, guys, I really needed that).
And, she will edit this column. So I will wrap it up, because she also taught me the importance of getting to the point.
The point is: I’m going to miss the newspaper.
I’ve spent every Tuesday and Wednesday night of every semester for the past three years making The Vantage. And I’m so glad I did.
I want to thank everyone – from the staff to the readers to our delivery man Mo Floyd – for everything they’ve done for me and for this newspaper.
I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading The Vantage as much as I enjoyed making it. And trust me, The Vantage has big things coming (Don’t tell them, but I think next year’s staff might be better at this than I was).
Delaney out. Cut to me pogo-ing toward the horizon
