I am fortune's full

I tried to quit. I really did.
But everytime I stormed off ranting about people who’d never heard of a deadline or late production nights, I got reeled back in.
“You sold your soul,” they’d tell me. Apparently two and a half years at The Daily Gamecock is equivalent to betting on a fiddling competition. And losing.
I complain a lot, but usually it’s all a joke. Tensions got high in the newsroom once in awhile, but most arguments could be solved with an ice cream run or television break.
This semester, I finally had to go through with quitting. I have another year of classes left, but after two and half years as a designer and eventually design director, I’m ready to find out what college is like when you don’t work past midnight 3 nights a week. Not that I’m getting out of it completely—I’ve promised to watch over design next semester, and I may be taking on another huge part of Student Media next year.
But I digress.
Even though I won’t be graduating until May ’08, people can’t seem to resist telling me how I’m getting ready to enter the “real world.” That magical place that was after high school first, and now is after college. In the real world, they say, I’ll have to get a job. I’ll pay bills and live on my own.
Amazing. Y’know, amazingly familiar…
Ok, so maybe financial aid and parents help out with some bills, but I pay a lot on my own. And the job thing? Between three jobs I work more than full-time every week. That calculation is without a full class schedule. And all my friends get to listen to me complain about all this.
I realized recently though, that I complain about my jobs in the same way I complain about the Gamecock. I work three jobs for the money and experience, but I stay at all three of these jobs because I love them. Papers and midterms suck, but without school I wouldn’t have any of the jobs I love and I wouldn’t have half the people I love. I might have all the free time in the world, but I wouldn’t even have a social life worth scraping together.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is: thanks for the experience. And I might actually miss this place, if I can ever escape.
Oh and on the whole real world thing all I can say is bring it on.
I could really use the relaxation.


-- Megan Sinclair
Design Director