I have reached the end of my time on The Horizon and at IU Southeast.

It still really has not hit me that I will be leaving, and it is even harder to fathom that I will soon obtain my bachelor’s degree in journalism.

As I write this, my 9-year-old son is sleeping. I think how innocent and oblivious he is to the life he has ahead of him.

I hope he will remember all the crazy, hilarious and embarrassing moments he will have with his peers.

I also hope he remembers the emotion he will feel in those pivotal moments in life, which will ultimately help chisel character and add ridges to knowledge, as it did mine.

I have been at IU Southeast for a while, but not too long. Yes, I have been here for more than the traditional four years but by choice.

This has always been my pace, hence the title “untraditional student,” which I proudly accept.

I was a student nomad when I first started IU Southeast at 17.

I had no real direction and was not really sure why I was here other than everybody told me that was the natural course of progression for the traditional student.

So, being the untraditional hunter and gatherer I was, I dropped out, and that is when the real learning began.

Lesson: Life experience exceeds any lecture — say more “yes” and less “no.”

My insatiable curiosity for “yes” experiences led me to the road less traveled, and occasionally hit a detour, which explains the cause for congestion.

Like Gulliver, I met many people along my travels. I’ve never been one to judge; however, I wish the skepticism I am friends with now would have been introduced to me sooner.

Being naïve introduced me to people I referred to as thief and cheat. Being the innovative socialites they were, thief and cheat introduced me to sad and heartache via text.

Lesson: Naïve has groupies, and sometimes you have to powerfully slap a face.

My motivational slap helped separate myself from the groupies.

While thief and cheat shacked up with someone somewhere in Jeffersonville, I found a new home — The Horizon newsroom.

I wanted to surround myself with critical thinkers. So I went back to college, and met confidence and independence.

This time around at college, I not only had a map, I had a compass. By professors providing the tools, I could pave my own roads.

I spent many overnighters, sometimes even with my son by my side, working on design projects assigned in classes, and even more time on projects that were not assigned in class.

I would not have even imagined finishing projects like these before and certainly did not have the skills to produce them prior to my journalism curriculum.

I spent countless hours pushing myself to learn new skills and surrounded myself with inspiring professors and students who were as curious and as skeptical as I had become, which naturally led me to journalism.

This is the only journalism program offered locally, yet it is the least marketed. There is a great need for writers, producers, designers, and great communicators in every job.

IU Southeast exists because of students.

The administration should create opportunities for students to engage in applied learning as promised in the IU Southeast mission, and I appreciate the faculty and staff that have delivered this promise.

Many thank yous to Jim St. Clair, professor of journalism, and Ron Allman, associate professor of journalism, for not only illuminating the inquisitive torch, but guiding me down a rocky road that was not visible on my map — journalism.

Also, many thanks to my journalism and communication peers who helped patch my tire when those rocks punctured a hole.

I look forward to meeting you in the future down a different road, hopefully void of road rash.

—30—

By LEAH TATE

Sports Editor

lmtate@umail.iu.edu