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Letters from the News Editors: A farewell to the Concordy, our home (Carina Sorrentino)

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I entered Union as a psychology major with the intention of attending law school after graduation. Somewhere along the line, I realized that wasn’t for me, and that decision had a lot to do with the Concordy. Telling your parents that you want to be a lawyer inspires a certain pride and excitement; my future would be set in stone and I would always have a job. Going back on that decision might be hard and it might be scary, but as I prepare for graduation I am pretty sure that it will all be worth it.

By sophomore year, I had switched my major to political science, and while I still upheld the lawyer story, my doubts were piling up quick. My anxieties over what I would do post-graduation and the mark I would leave at Union needed an outlet. With one brave email, I reached out to the News Editor of the Concordy, wanting to write and get myself involved somewhere.

From there, I can say the rest was history. After writing for a few terms, I was approached to take over as News Editor. When elections came around the next year, I wasn’t ready to let go of the section. While every week meant I still write and I had to beg others to write for me, it didn’t matter.

The events I went to, the students I met and the faculty I got to know seemed to open up a side of myself that I hadn’t even known. Everywhere I would go on campus each week, there was a new face that was now more familiar than the past. From the multicultural events planned by Jason Benitez, to the Maker Movement work of Christine Henseler and John Rieffel, the student impact on C.O.C.O.A. House, the improvement of Schenectady by an alumnus or various Greek Life events, I have been lucky enough to learn just a little about it all.

There is a lot to be said for Union that at a school of 2,200 students, there is a functioning student newspaper with stories to run each week. The small campus community is what makes the Concordy so special, because I can guarantee that at least once you could open up the paper and see the achievements of the girl who sits next to you in class, or the fundraising event planned by the guy you have seen in the Starbucks line, or the speaker invited to the school by one of your best friends.

The Concordy gives the amazing students at this school a chance to be recognized, and I think that is why I love it the most. While all of these positive effects prompted me to commit to pursuing journalism after Union, I know that I will never be a part of a paper like the Concordy again. There is a lot going on in the world and a lot more than 2,200 people, but working for a paper at a small liberal arts school has taught me how to drown out the noise.

My goal moving into the future is to find a publication that appreciates the community in which it exists and highlights its achievements. I never want to lose the positive shine that the Concordy has cast on my college career.

The anxieties of leaving Union have been curbed, only slightly, with my realization of what I truly love to do. While there will be a rigorous job search, heartrending interviews, disappointing rejections and many moments of success, I can at least be happy knowing that I will not be leaving Union as an anonymous figure.

Whether my article had 35 or 735 views that week, I am confident I left my mark. Maybe my writing entertained you, maybe it didn’t. Maybe we met because of an article I wrote about you, or maybe I attended your event and brought it publicity that you weren’t expecting.

I can’t be certain what my work may have meant to everyone else here, but to me, it meant a direction, a starting point, an experience and an outlet.

Coming to Union as a shy freshman and finding the confidence to allow an entire campus to read my writing from week to week has changed me forever. So for that, I need to thank the Concordy and thank all of you.

Thank you for the support in my articles. The positive feedback is what has kept me going for two years as an editor. A huge thank you to my best friends, who attended events with me, read my work and instilled a confidence in me that I could actually be a good writer. You guys have been my rock.

And most importantly, thank you, Union, because you gave me an incredible campus of students to showcase from week to week and you gave me the chance to turn my hobby into a potential career.

I hope someday my words are reaching millions of people and I will be able to credit the Concordy for giving me my first home as an aspiring writer.

With that, I wish the best to all of those graduating in my class this year. Before we start that next chapter, I look forward to a hell of a spring term with those of you who have made my newspaper career possible.


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