Senior Send-off: Former editor reflects on opportunities

When entering a university, you never really envision the day you exit it — it just seems like a date that’s light years away. Instead, you are filled with the excitement of every new aspect of life that comes at you. Then, you blink and all of a sudden you find yourself writing your last paper, attending your last class and having your last Daly’s meal.

As I sit on my futon in West Village residence hall writing this, I can vividly remember the days when I stared in awe at this building, just wondering when my time would come to live here. It’s crazy to think I came in as a 17 year-old undeclared freshman without a clue of what I wanted to do. Four years later, I look at my now 21-year-old self and think of all the things I accomplished with my time here and how far I have come.

Rider University and the opportunities I took part in here have truly shaped me into the adult I am today. I was given the chance to work in two jobs on campus that I hold near and dear to my heart. One was working at the Information Desk in the Bart Luedeke Center, which I have been doing since my sophomore year. Through this, I got to fully understand every facet of the campus, help students and visitors and create relationships with great administrators.

Along with this, I was the Opinion editor of The Rider News starting my junior year. This involved hours that felt like days, days that felt like weeks and something always going wrong whenever it could. Yet I can honestly say, I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world. I got the opportunity to grow in my writing and work alongside an amazingly talented staff I can call part of my family — not to mention being a part of an award-winning team.

While I owe a lot of my experiences to the education I received, it is the involvement outside the classroom that has shaped me and will always stick with me. Without being able to decide what I wanted to do, and to grow to excel in it, I wouldn’t have had the chances and independence I obtained here.

Despite how fast the four years seemed to go, it is that way because of the experiences I had and the people I had them with. And while it is hard to leave and move onto the next chapter, I can walk away knowing I am prepared for life.

-Kristy Grinere

Outgoing opinion editor