The Daily isn’t a place where you’re allowed to take a break. This was the general sentiment I heard from people coming into my freshman year: you’ll stay up until 6 a.m. to lay out the paper every night, have your article ripped to shreds by an editor, and spend your entire undergrad life in the newsroom.
And once I joined The Daily my freshman fall, I figured there probably wouldn’t be a time until I graduated that I wouldn’t be in the newsroom in some capacity. But, instead of feeling like I was pressured into staying late or like the newsroom was some scary entity, I found myself bonding with other devos, editors and newfound friends ― I’d found my place on campus. While before college I might have envisioned myself working on a magazine or not doing traditional newspaper journalism, I grew to love the fast-paced environment at The Daily, and all of the friends I bonded with during nights on the third floor of Norris.
After reporting across most desks, being an assistant city editor and arts and entertainment editor, I found myself drowning trying to find a balance between my personal and journalism life my sophomore year. Working a serving job at a breakfast restaurant and staying up until 2 a.m. in the newsroom weren’t exactly conducive.
I recognized that after reaching that point, I needed to take a step back from the paper. I ended up not applying for an editor role during that quarter, and wrote a single column throughout the ten publishing weeks.
Returning to The Daily in the fall of my junior year, I fell back in love with reporting, editing and spending many nights a week with my friends in the newsroom. Taking that break is what gave me the space to find that same love I had the first time I ever went into the newsroom.
Even though coming into The Daily it might seem like you need to spend every waking moment in the newsroom, you can’t do those things without taking the time for yourself first. To bring a deeper level of care to your reporting, editing, source relationships and friendships, you have to take care of yourself. So take that break, and when you’re ready to come back, The Daily will still be there.
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