I was going to leave.

About two years ago, I was planning to transfer out of Binghamton University and continue my college education at a prestigious institution — the kind with near-universal name recognition and a reputation that encompassed everything I had believed I was working toward for most of my life. Somewhere I could learn and grow into who I was supposed to be.

Reading that acceptance letter, I found myself weighing the pros and cons of a monumental decision that I thought would shape the course of my life. For a while, I was ready to abandon everything I had come to know here and start over again. But the gravity that comes with choosing your own fate was enough for me to reconsider what would follow — and ultimately reground myself.

I stayed. The overwhelmingly rational part of me always knew that I would (I actually started writing this column back in 2025). And this decision opened the doors to some of the most meaningful opportunities of my life.

Thank you to everyone who let me cross enemy lines, play double agent and just do as much humanly possible these past few years. Last, but certainly not least, on that never-ending list of those I am forever indebted to is the Pipe Dream newsroom — the windowless office sustaining the dying yet critical practice of journalism off willpower alone, hidden deep in the University Union basement, has become a staple of my weekly routines.

Despite all the tight deadlines and last-minute assignments, I’ve been incredibly privileged to report on the people and places that make Binghamton what it is — interviewing professors, students, staff and Broome County residents all while learning as a contributor, growing as an intern and now leading as an assistant editor. Many of the people who give the community its character are the same ones who compelled me to stay.

To Christina and Jaiden, your leadership and friendship have been nothing short of inspiring. Your discernible passion for journalism and perspectives as individuals has helped to shape me and the rest of the section into much stronger writers, making all our productions just a little more tolerable. Thank you for showing me the ropes with Revati, deliberating over late-night edits with me and laughing at all my jokes in production for the past two years.

Christina, your enthusiasm, honesty and sense of humor are forever refreshing — I will always remember the time(s) we died on Vestal Parkway and every stupid headline we wrote (sorry, Grace). I’m so glad that Pipe Dream brought us together and that you’ve become one of my closest friends in and out of the office. I’ll always be cheering you on from afar.

Jaiden, you are a force to be reckoned with — I have never met someone as creative and committed to what they want as you are. You’ve always had such a clear sense of what you want to build, and I can’t wait to see how that manifests itself alongside Cybella and Isabella next year. The future of Arts is in excellent hands. I hope you both continue to lead with your heart.

To everyone on the Student Association Programming Board and the American Red Cross Club, thank you for helping me bring to life the vision we were entrusted with. Being able to give back to the community, build something from nothing and watch a years-long legacy continue to grow into something bigger than all of us has made all the time and energy worth it.

Looking back on all the things I would’ve missed over the last three years if I had transferred to my so-called dream school, I know I made the right decision. The University gave me the space to embrace my aspirations and the encouragement to pursue them fully — instilling in me the never-ending drive to try everything and, more importantly, be true to myself. Everyone I’ve met over these past three years has been so genuinely gracious and supportive, seeing and sparking something in me that might have always been there.

For someone so focused on moving forward, it took me a while to realize that I didn’t need to go anywhere else to find what I was truly searching for. I just had to stay long enough to recognize what I wanted. Like any other stage of life, I’ve never seen graduating from college as the end-all, be-all or even just a final ending in and of itself. If anything, it feels like a beginning — the first step in a long progression of things to come next, both good and bad.

And these things don’t just happen. Whether you realize it or not, you pull them into your center of orbit. The universe knows what it’s doing and has a way of working itself out. No matter how relentless it may be, you will always be more.

Katelyn Pothakul, a senior majoring in global public health, is an assistant arts and culture editor for Pipe Dream.