Fuller: 13 Beats of The Daily Northwestern

Haley Fuller, Senior Staffer


Graduation Issue 2022


Before I transferred to Northwestern, I spent a year at Colgate University and wrote for the Colgate Maroon-News. My first assignment was writing a “13 Beats of the Week” column. As awful as it was, I think it’s only fitting for my last college byline to be a 13 Beats focusing on the memories I’ve made at The Daily.

1. “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” by Panic! At The Disco
When my first print story made the front page, I called my mom immediately. After a long road to NU, it was so validating to finally see my byline in The Daily.

2. “Stand By You” by Rachel Platten
I hadn’t even become a fully-fledged staffer by the time Jeff Sessions upended The Daily. However, I quickly learned that the people on this paper will always take care of each other and band together when times get tough.

3. “Uncharted” by Sara Bareilles
Transitioning to a remote newsroom in spring 2020 was truly uncharted territory.

4. “Here’s To Being Single” by Lost Stars
If I hadn’t been single on Valentine’s Day in 2020, I may have never invited two people on staff I barely knew to an event in downtown Chicago. Luckily, I was, and a wonderful, chaotic friendship was born.

5. “Hey Stephen” by Taylor Swift
Shoutout to my editor for playing this bop to make me smile after a particularly horrible week.

6. “Up All Night” by One Direction
There is no experience quite like pulling an all-nighter on the third floor of Norris University Center at the end of the quarter, followed by watching the sunrise and eating breakfast at Le Peep to celebrate another 9 weeks on The Daily.

7. “Vista Beach” by One South Lark
I first heard this tune while editing a podcast on One South Lark, and I was immediately hooked on the band’s music.

8. “1 step forward, 3 steps back” by Olivia Rodrigo
I listened to SOUR somewhere in Willard Residential College while finishing a night of editing, and I teared up when I heard the first, haunting notes of “1 step forward, 3 steps back.”

9. “Feel Something” by Joshua Bassett
I listened to this a frightening amount of times while writing the draft of my In Focus. I did feel something: extreme stress.

10. “The Very First Night” by Taylor Swift
One of my core memories is screaming this iconic vault track in the editor in chief’s office at 12:46 a.m. during the last night of publication in November 2021.

11. “All I Do Is Win” by DJ Khaled feat. T-Pain, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg & Rick Ross
This is how I felt when I used my extensive WordPress and Twitter skills to help the sports desk scoop ESPN during the 2021 NFL draft.

12. “Almost” by Thomas Rhett
My journey to NU and my time at The Daily has been anything but linear, but I wouldn’t want to have done it any other way.

13. “New Year’s Day” by Taylor Swift
To the many wonderful people who kept me coming back to this paper, “please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere.”

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @haley_fuller_