I have not been to Athens in half a year, and I still find it hard to say goodbye. In the past 4 years, I have changed perspectives on a multitude of topics, met some of my favorite people in the world and done my best to help out The Post.
The friendships I made with other Post reporters are completely different from what is out there in the real world. I will miss them the most. Over the last half-year, I have worked two different internships, and it has become harder to relate to my co-workers.
I don’t say that in a bad way. My internships at The Columbus Dispatch and C-SPAN were fantastic opportunities, but I am much younger than the average person in the office. Unsurprisingly, office cultures are vastly different from working with people who all have similar living situations, are the same age, take the same classes and are interested in the same things.
Working in an environment like that will never happen again and I will always cherish the reporting trips I took with our news team and the late nights I spent editing “The Post TV.” Thank you Madalyn Blair and Cole Patterson to name a couple of people who made this place so great to work for.
A lot of people come to Ohio University to get the typical college experience. For many reasons, Athens constantly ranks highly on Barstool Sports’ best college towns. I’m not sure I got that or if I ever really found out what that experience was; I was always focused on journalism, and I had to crawl out of a shell of social anxiety I gained from the pandemic. College is what you make it, and I’m happy with my experience.
Three years in Athens went by quickly. I wish I had more time but I would feel worse if I held on too long. Moments in your life like this are special. The more gates you pass like graduating college, the more you realize that there probably won’t be periods of your life that are this impactful and meaningful.
Make the most of what you have, long live The Post, support student journalism, cliché, cliché, cliché.
Donovan Hunt is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the views expressed in the column do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Donovan? Email him at dh322621@ohio.edu
