Dear reader, 

It’s funny how much more things seem to matter when we know they’re ending: the last drops of a stellar pot of coffee, the fading notes of your favorite song, a farewell to a friend, the last few days of the semester where you’re convinced you can boost your grade if only you try hard enough – okay, maybe that’s just me. 

It’s as if we fear the imminence of finality, try to suck every last drop from life in the knick of time. But in the end, everything ends. 

The thing about working for the Post, though, is that everything seemed to matter. The gravity of time fell on every day, and every moment that we were able to bring you the campus news or updates felt equally as important, exciting, gratifying. 

From Hillary to hoop houses, the clock tower to the ceiling collapse in Oak View, we took reporting your news seriously and to heart this past year, aiming for the best and always striving to improve, regardless of any sleep deprivation or weird stomach pains from excessive vending machine food from across the hall at 2 a.m. 

Maybe that’s when you know you’ve found your passion, or maybe that’s when you know you’ve spent too much time in the basement of the Oakland Center. 

Either way, I’d like to say thank you for the privilege of being editor-in-chief of the Oakland Post for the past year. It has been an honor to lead the talented staff who brought you coverage on everything from the summer’s private-turned-public presidential search to the Iggy concert, the brass band’s trip to London to the Horizon League and NCAA success of our men’s soccer, women’s volleyball, swim and basketball teams. 

Thank you for reading and supporting our coverage and sending us letters when you did not.

We were here to give you the latest on the norovirus-like illness that crept across campus, Jerry Greenfield and Ash Beckham’s speaking engagements, the student congress elections and more, and even picked up some awards along the way.

We were here to help remember those who passed: Jeremy, Bassam, Chandler, Frank, Cody. Rest in peace.

You are currently holding the 32nd and final issue of the school year, the last 24 pages in the 708 produced this year – an admitted mixture of our 45-member staff’s journalistic blood, sweat, tears, and more sweat. 

It is with the next issue that the Post turns to a new page, flipped by time and maintained by the highly capable hands of next year’s Editor-in-Chief Kaylee Kean and Managing Editor Kayla Varicalli. 

Hopefully sunglasses will be in next year’s Post giveaway budget, because the future of the paper is just that bright.  The two have plans to give the Oakland Post an even larger online presence, to help grow and produce the level of meaningful content and continue to foster an environment for student journalists, photographers and copy editors to grow. 

T.S. Eliot once said “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”

All things must end, but the new era of the Post is just beginning. 

Savor every minute of it.

Thank you,

Oona Goodin-Smith

Editor-in-Chief