Ciao: Goodbye from the Campus News Editor

Outgoing Managing Editor Emily Stellakis (left) and outgoing Campus News Editor Sasha Tuddenham (right), reflecting on their paper. Photo by Matt Devine 24’.

Life update: this is my final week at Marist College.

My favorite way to start a conversation is with “Life Update.” It is how I told my housemates during sophomore year I was going abroad in the spring. It was how I broke the news to my sister this fall that I decided to graduate a semester early. It was how I told my parents I am moving to D.C. this January.

The idea of graduating early was a running joke for the past three years. When I fell over this past February from the wind tunnel outside of Ward Hall and when Marty the Mouse decided to become our ninth housemate in Upper Fulton sophomore year, my immediate response was always, “Time to graduate!” 

I am sarcastic by nature, so my friends would just shake their heads and change the subject to when we should all take off from class to go to Hawaii. 

I never spent more than one semester in each dorm room because I was always on the move. I went abroad for a semester each academic year. The only constant I knew I was returning to was on Tuesdays at 9:15 p.m. in the basement of LT: The Circle meeting. 

I would start the trek from my apartment after bribing a friend to come to the meetings with me. They gave a trusty thumbs-up when nobody felt like writing about an event at Marist that week as I stood in front of the quiet crowd.

Although I will be moving on, the people at The Circle – the only individuals who could convince me to say goodbye to the Oxford comma – will become some of my favorite Marist memories. I will never forget Makena Gera, my freshman year, calling me to ask if I wanted to take over Features. I will never forget Sarah Lynch dm-ing me that I had a gift for writing after I published a story for the For The Record initiative. I will never forget Greta Stuckey’s expressions when we made eye contact, which encouraged me to share my ideas and laugh at the worst times. 

Between Sam Murphy and Lauryn Starke putting up with my constant bombardment of texts and the newspaper advisors, Dr. Lerner and Professor Basinger, dealing with my panicked office hour visits, I realize how much I need to credit the Circle for pushing me to commit to writing. From the motivational cookies Mackenzie Boric would bring to the library on editing nights and Amanda Nessel always being down for frozen yogurt runs, I was lucky enough to work in a supportive environment that encouraged me to grow, even when I was away from campus. 

This paper helped define my college experience, and for that, I will always be thankful. My weekly Starbucks debriefs with Emily Stellakis, one of my fellow December graduates: CONGRATULATIONS, we will now move to the Tatte at Metro Center. 

Thank you for making three and a half years truly memorable.

Love, Sasha