Adiós mis amigos!

Change. A short word with a powerful meaning. A word that can offer hope and can have a lasting impact on someone.

Often we hear the phrase that "someone has changed" and automatically assume it was for worst.

Before I entered college, I heard the stories that college would change me and that I would not be the same person I was when I entered.

Four years ago I told myself that no matter what happened, I would never change.

I was content with who I was. Four years later I would be telling the biggest lie if I claimed I had not changed.

At times I don't know if I changed for better or worse but I do know I am not the same little girl I was when I first arrived at NCCU.

My experience at NCCU has proven to be a life-changing experience that I truly don't know how to describe.

When I arrived at NCCU, I had no idea what an HBCU even was.

Coming from up North, I had no idea what the "Southern life" was like.

Uncertain and curious, I came to NCCU to play for the women's volleyball program.

I was excited to be given the opportunity to play in college.

If you had asked me then what I wished to accomplish by my senior year, I probably would have told you "to break the school record in blocks and kills."

Never in a million years would I have thought I'd become editor-in-chief of a college newspaper.

In high school I always thought the school newspaper was where all the nerds hung out.

I guess I am queen of all nerds now.

I became involved with the Echo my junior year when I had to sit out from volleyball because of an injury and couldn't even practice.

I inherited a massive amount of time and I spent that   time in the newsroom helping out.

I can still remember when former editor Carlton Koonce informed me I was being looked at as a potential editor-in-chief.

I was shocked. I didn't believe I was capable of rising to the task.

All the awards plastered up in the newsroom had me intimidated and I felt that I would be content just writing the occasional sports story.

When I was dismissed from the volleyball team, I felt emancipated.

But I had to endure a number of "failures" — I had been rejected from a sorority, and I was forced to turn down my position as a residential assistant because I was told I could not hold a leadership role at the Echo and work as an RA.

When I think back, it almost seems all my setbacks were a set-up for me to pour my energy into the Campus Echo.

I never told a soul this but when I first began my tenure as editor, I was terrified that I might fail.

I worried that I would be the editor who ran the Campus Echo into the ground.

I didn't trust my ability to lead.

Fear and self-doubt were my best friends, but little by little I began to believe.

When the awards arrived — 16 from the Black College Communication Association, four from NC College Media Association, and a regional best newspaper award from the Society of Professional Journalists — I finally began to believe.

I cannot claim credit for our success. I thank everyone at the Campus Echo — the hardest working group of students and faculty on campus.

I will never forget my experience at the Campus Echo.