The Knox Student was the first student organization I joined on campus. I went into that first meeting on a Monday evening, week two of my first year of college, nervous and excited.

That was the first time I entered the pub office, a room that is now where I feel the most at home on campus. The staff was small then, and still recovering from a year of online courses.

They were looking for staff writers and hired me on the spot. I knew almost nothing, and my first few articles are almost embarrassing to look back at.

But I think maybe my whole life was changed in that moment.

That first year was chaotic to say the least, which was the fault of nothing but circumstance. No one was quite sure what TKS should look like post-pandemic, would we return to the much awarded model of the past, or look to the future and try something new?

But that year I learned, from our then new advisor Jane Carlson, and then sophomore Ellen Miller Garrett who would later become my partner-in-crime, my co-editor-in-chief, from whom I learned much of what I learned about news writing and leading the paper.

Together, along with the rest of the staff, we dreamed of what TKS could be, what we could make it be together.

And we made it great. And it made me great.

It feels like TKS is a plant that we’ve been nurturing for years as a team. The roots are 145 years old, different flowers growing through the decades. The pandemic uprooted us a little. But we stuck our hands in the ground and dragged it into existence again, blooming new flowers, for a new time.

And you know, I think maybe TKS grew me too. It reached into the heart of me and pulled out who I want to be, what I want to do, the life I want to live.

And it gave me moments, so many moments. Moments where I wrote something and just knew I was doing something important, something that could make change. Moments where I was in the midst of reporting and just knew, this is what I want to spend my life doing. Moments of pure joy and validation, winning awards for work that I knew was my best.

Maybe even better moments, watching my staff feel those things too.

And that little TKS plant has flourished over these past two years. It grew its first bud when Ellen came up with the idea of a newsmagazine, and blossomed when we first published it. With each new idea, a redesigned website, a radio show, a newsletter, more flowers sprout.

I look at it, and I am so proud that some of that can be credited to me.

I have poured my heart and soul into this organization, dug my heels in and fought for it. I gave it quite literally everything I have to give. My grip on it, and its grip on me, is so tight, I’m not sure I can let it go.

But it is that time. Graduation is nigh.

Who I will be without TKS, I don’t know, I’m not sure there’ll be anything left.

But I do know what TKS will be without me.

It will be bigger, stronger, better, because I know those I leave behind are equipped to take it to even higher heights.

This magazine is the best thing we’ve yet made in my time here. It’s my vision for the future of TKS. What we can be, what we should be, what I know we can continue to be in the future, with or without me.

So it’s time to unclench my hands, and let go.

This is my goodbye column.

Goodbye to Knox, I hope I’ve done well by you in my reporting.

Goodbye to my staff, especially my editors, I love you all dearly, none of this would’ve happened without you. To those staying, I believe in you, make TKS what you want. It’s yours now.

Goodbye to Jane and Ellen, you taught me everything I know, this is as much your baby as it is mine.

And goodbye to The Knox Student.

I know we made each other the best we can be.

Eleanor Lindenmayer

The Knox Student, Editor-In-Chief 2022-2024