I am sad to say this is the last issue of The Lamp that I will help produce.

I have learned a lot during this past year. When I first started writing for The Lamp, I was a business major.

After writing my first three articles, I knew I wanted to be a reporter. I changed my major to journalism, and I began to explore my writing in a completely different way than I had before. I used to think of writing as the 3-hour process it took me to get an A on an English essay, but I have since come to realize the amazing tool that writing can be, and that it can make tangible change within communities.

And The Lamp has done more for me than just improving my writing skills. I have also become more confident through having to approach strangers on a regular basis and ask them seemingly strange questions, like if I can take a picture of them studying. (I’m talking about your writing class, Tim McKenzie.)

I have become more involved with Lincoln Land as a whole by taking photos and asking students if they like free food every time Dan Herbkoe came to provide the student body with walking tacos or some form of waffle.

I’ve attended events I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to, and I got to attend three Illinois Community College Journalism Association conferences with some of the coolest people I’ve met at LLCC. I even got to listen to a lecture from Glenn Kramon, a former assistant editor at The New York Times!

Another thing I’ve learned from The Lamp that I can’t forget is definitely how to stay sane during late production days. (Voters guide, anyone?)

I’ve had the opportunity to learn from some awesome people, and I will definitely be reading thelamponline.com while I continue my journalism education at Baylor University.

I will be interning at the Illinois Times this summer, then I will head to Texas in August to earn my bachelor’s degree in Journalism & New Media with a minor in political science.

I will dearly miss my time here, and I thought it only fit to end my tenure at The Lamp with a quote from the infamous Brenda Protz.

”You can take the girl out of The Lamp, but you can’t take The Lamp out of the girl.”

Meredith Howard can be reached at [email protected].