Dear The Green Pride staff,

Sup. So this is goodbye, kinda, I guess. I wanted this to be super emotional because I am super emotional, but it really isn’t.

I have spent the last three years on The Green Pride, and honestly, I almost didn’t come back for my junior year, but I sure am glad I did. I really am going to miss writing for the paper so much, even though most of it consists of late deadlines, yelling at inDesign and buying out McDonald’s and Casey’s for work night. Most of all though, I am going to miss you guys on staff and all the weird inside jokes, blaring music and the cube. But before I go, I want to call all of you out.

Lizzy, I told you that you would be first so you are. I absolutely love you and your crazy antics and I know you are going to do amazing things next year and for the rest of your life, both journalistically and otherwise. I’m going to miss being a witness to the best BRAmance I’ve ever seen between you and Ellie. Remember to keep your head up, don’t let people bother you and that you are a strong and confident woman.

Ellie, since you and Lizzy are never apart, I figured I would keep it the same. You are so talented, and I know that I am leaving The Green Pride in good hands with you skills and ideas. I loved watching you become such a talented journalist and getting to know you, your sense of humor and your wild friendship with Lizzy.

Sam, even though you might already know, but I thought of you like a son and was constantly so proud of everything you did this year. I don’t know what you want to do with your life, but I know you are so incredibly talented and should continue to write. You are going to hit the ground running next year, and I can’t wait to watch you and think “There goes my son”, because I may or may not already do that when I drive by you running.

Alyse, I am so proud of everything you did this year and that you have decided to fight inDesign this year. You are so talented, and I have enjoyed helping you throughout the past couple years. I’m still a little confused because I could never read your emotion so I really don’t know if you enjoy newspaper but I sure hope you do. Your fashion sense is incredible, so I hope you do something with it in your future.

Abby, your art has took The Green Pride and the rest of the school by storm. You are so creative and talented and I can’t wait to see it in next year’s issues. I will forever appreciate you being into conspiracy theories, astrology, Jenna Marbles and things of the supernatural nature. I hope next year’s pisces season treats you so well. Keep the Jenna Marbles voice alive and keep believing, because aliens are real.

Clara, I could not think of a better person to pass my Opinion Editor position too. You are so talented and not afraid to share your beliefs with the world and I was so proud of all the controversial topics you put out for everyone to see. You are so kind and willing to help anyone with their stories and have such creative twists to take on story ideas. I always knew we could rely on you when we were running out of stories or needed a specific angle to take.

Maya and Ally, you two have THE MOST INTENSE BRAmance ever. I thought Lizzy and Ellie were inseparable, but they are strangers in comparison. It feels wrong to only address one of you at a time. You do your best work together and I honestly have no idea how the world will function when you guys go to different schools. I heard you guys might not be on the paper next year, so I wish you the best in your senior year and volleyball season.

Ella, Justine and Alicia, I did not really get to spend much time with you and you guys are very quiet, I hope that the back couple rows didn’t scare you off. I regret not really being around to get to know you guys, but I have enjoyed being one of your editors and reading your stories. Remember it is okay to step outside your comfort zones and great things can happen when you do.

Maggie, Hayley and Camryn, you guys are the staff reporters I spent the most time with and you are up-and-coming with your talent. Your stories were always so much fun to read and you guys really threw yourselves into the craziness of The Green Pride. I can’t wait to see what you guys do over the next couple of years, and Camryn, like Micah said, you are going to be queen of inDesign.

Keegan, Rose, Peyton and Daniel, you guys were the biggest video crew we have had in awhile, I think, and you did a great job with blending in and not making the video crew it’s own thing just plopped in the middle of all the chaos of the writers. Peyton, I appreciate you stepping in as self-proclaimed Video Editor, because I had no idea what kind of stories you all do and you made sure that your people got their stuff done on time. Daniel, you were my Freshmen Mentoring buddy and my gemini friend and I appreciate all that but you also helped hand out papers and heal Sam of his heartbreaking separation with Jack. Rose and Keegan you guys kinda kept to yourselves but I appreciate everything you did.

And now for the seniors, these are the few paragraphs I never wanted to write because I don’t want to accept the fate of my time on staff coming to an end. But, here we go.

Kelly, I have always wanted to be your friend, but I thought you were to cool for me. So I fangirled when we became close this year and I am so glad we are friends. I love your super chill and whatever attitude because it’s so different from a lot of people’s need for craziness. I’ll admit I was a little jealous that you took the last spot in that one gym class freshman year so I couldn’t join the newspaper too, but it’s okay because it worked out in the end. I always love reading your writing because you are so talented. I was also super fun when you would come and sit at Sullivan’s second computer and have a senior gossip pow-wow. I really hope we get to hang out over the summer and am so excited for your future.

Johnny, did you go to Aruba for spring break? I am so thankful for your go-getter attitude and willingness to take pictures all the time. I was constantly on that shoppe grind so it made me feel better to know that we would always have great pictures because our fearless photo editor was on it. You are so ready to take on the inDesign game and I think me, Rylee and Micah were ready for your ideas to not work out, and sometimes they didn’t, but overall, I think you killed the inDesign game this year, but remember the colored boxes need to be bigger than the text boxes. Now everytime I accidently leave a “g” off the end of a word, I read it in your voice. I can’t wait to see all your pictures in KU’s newspaper. Maybe we’ll run into each other working for Buzzfeed in the future.

Rylee and Micah, I was so excited to be Co-Editor with you guys and I’m sorry for the amount of three-IC jokes I made or at least thought about making. You guys are so talented and sometimes I am still surprised I got to be beside you guys as EIC. Micah, I hope you continue to write journalistically because you are so good, but if not, send me everything you ever write because I love it so much. Rylee, us journalism girls continuing our way. I love all your stories and will be following everything you do because, journalism is just hardcore legal stalking. I love working with you guys and wouldn’t want to stress about deadlines with anyone else.

You guys are truly a couple of my best friends and I could not be more thankful than this past year I have spent with you guys. I love and appreciate all your support and I hope you guys know you have all my love and support for the future and could not ask for a better group of people to be my family and to do an unpaid job for the school with.

And finally, the last, but probably most important member of The Green Pride, Sully. I know you have probably gotten like a million thank yous from me, but none of them are public. I can’t say much that you don’t already know, but thank you again for everything, I will come back and bother you next year, I promise you that.

Thank you The Green Pride, for everything. Keep up the good work and I can’t wait to see what amazing things you guys do next year.

Sincerely,

Reaghan (Dragon) Wharff