By Amanda Richey, Editor-in-Chief

In a little more than one week, one fourth of the student body will walk through the front gates as undergraduates for the last time. Somehow, our college careers vanished before our eyes and we await the refreshing or discomforting uncertainty of the new. This is a time to pause and dwell on the sentimental, whether it is to appreciate the last school year or the last four. Since this is my final contribution to The Paladin, out of a four year run, I find myself mostly reflecting on this newspaper and its role at Furman.

You might wonder why a student-run bi-weekly print newspaper is worth fighting for in an age when the latest headlines are instantaneously at our fingertips. You might question why members of our staff dedicate so much of themselves to what will ultimately become yesterday’s news. Well, we do it for you, the reader.

Without a reader, a newspaper fails to serve its community. Even the most brilliantly crafted stories are nothing but shouts in a void if they are not shared. On a more specific note, The Paladin could not exist without Furman and the multiplicity of students, faculty and staff who call this bubble home. To those among you who have offered both criticism and congratulations, I thank you. You’ve shown me that this newspaper is capable of sparking conversation, even in an age of print journalism’s decline.

It is my sincere hope that this year The Paladin not only informed but also allowed you to question why things are the way they are. I hope we encouraged you to interrogate the status quo. I hope we inspired you to raise your voice or talk with people whose opinions differ from your own. Somewhere along the line, I hope the transient nature of journalism impacted who you are today.

Additionally, I hope you read The Paladin with an appreciation for the work behind each and every article. A student newspaper is so much more than an extracurricular club, at least for me. The students who spend late nights (and early mornings) creating the print layout or running around campus for photographs or playing telephone tag for those essential interviews have become a family. I cannot thank them enough for their passion and dedication to this publication and am excited to see in what direction they steer The Paladin.

In closing, I leave you, dear reader, in Carter Hunt’s more than capable hands for the upcoming school year. Until then, remember the work behind the headlines, even in their ever-fleeting state.