The 2018-2019 school year has been one of the best years of my life. I honestly have never been as happy as I have been this year.

Not only have I had the honor of being the Viewpoints Editor my first year on the paper, but I also served as a Senator at Large in Student Government Association.

Because of these two positions, I have had a lot of opportunities to meet so many people. There is so much that I want to share, but I won’t take up this whole page to try and summarize my year. So, I’ll share a couple lessons that I learned during my time as both a senator and an editor.

My favorite lesson that I learned is to be unbiased. Be unbiased in everything and in everyone. I thought that I was always unbiased. I’m catholic but I support gay marriage, I support pro-life and pro-choice people, and I always love when people talk about their different religions.

Turns out, that doesn’t make you an unbiased person, those things should come naturally because that is what a decent human being is.

Throughout my life, I felt that I had to choose a side in order to survive. I was in a constant state of going back and forth and believing one parent over the other because of the divorce. I chose someone when I should have chosen myself. I didn’t realize this until I became the Viewpoints Editor.

I had to realize that I couldn’t pick and choose what pieces go onto the student opinions page because it wasn’t my personal page. It belongs to the students, it doesn’t matter if I agree with the piece or not. Throughout the year the Viewpoints page has had some powerful opinion pieces and I have loved the responses, good and bad.

As a senator, I represent each and every student on campus. It doesn’t matter who I look like or what language I speak, I am the voice of the students who feel like they don’t have one. I’m not in Greek life so I don’t know that world on campus, I just know that it’s present.

I had to learn that just because I may not understand or know what goes on in certain areas or lives on campus doesn’t mean that I get to disregard them.

I have to be unbiased, not just for my job, but for my own well-being. We all should, I see the world in a way I thought wasn’t possible. To be unbiased is to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Another lesson I learned is being in a position of leadership is something that everyone can learn from. Leadership skills come naturally to a lot of people, but I am not one of those people. I had to grow in confidence and learn from my peers. Being in a leadership organization like SGA has given me a chance to see the background of how things operate.

People rely on their senators and sometimes expect things that we can’t give them, but that doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t try.

There were moments where the responsibilities of both being in the Senate and on the Editorial Board seemed endless, but I reminded myself that I chose to be in these positions and I promised that I would serve them to the best of my ability.

I got overwhelmed a lot this year. The Current Sauce and SGA took up a huge portion of my life and sometimes I wondered if I was in over my head. I mixed up times and events sometimes and almost didn’t complete my office hours one week because I became so busy in the Current Sauce office.

I doubted myself a lot, I started to believe that I didn’t deserve to be where I was and that there were better people that could do my job. And that’s probably true, but no one would do it like me.

I helped build a bridge between student government and the media, and that is something that I’m really proud of.

I think he most important lesson is the one I learned about myself, and that is that I have potential.

The student body saw it in me when they voted for me, Jacob Bennett saw it in me when he asked if I wanted to be Viewpoints Editor, and after looking back on what I’ve done this year I finally see it in myself.

We all have potential, it takes a while to see it and others may see it before we do, but each of us has the ability to do something great. I hope that we all see the potential in ourselves one day.

So, as I wrap up this year I hope I remember everything that I’ve learned, and I hope whoever reads this does as well.

Be unbiased, be a leader, and believe in yourself. I already do.