Arriving at Binghamton as a community college transfer student in spring ‘24, I was content with a change of scenery and the opportunity to really focus on my studies. I was sure I had already found my place back home. When I joined Pipe Dream that same semester, I wasn’t really expecting to get anything more out of it than a resume booster. My time interning for the News section quickly proved me wrong.

I think the people at my desk would be shocked to learn that I’m typically a very quiet and reserved person. My plan going into my last two years of undergrad was to keep to myself. This was my approach when I first began attending productions. I was hesitant to treat interning as anything other than work.

That was until a rapport was established. Jokes were made and stories were shared. Eventually, I began to look forward to production. My relatively short yet formative time at Pipe Dream forced me to recognize that college is supposed to be a lot more than just hundreds of pages of reading a night and staring at a laptop screen until your eyes burn.

It’s about singing the last song at dive bar karaoke and lying in the Quad on a rare sunny day. It’s about making new connections and new memories.

I want to thank the News Desk for being a catalyst for this realization, for showing me that it wasn’t too late to learn and experience something new, for allowing me to gain some confidence and become more open in other areas of my life.

The Friday before spring break, I was driving home on the Palisades Parkway. Some asshole cut me off and, annoyed, I thought about how I’d be making this drive for the final time in May. I was expecting to breathe a sigh of relief, but my heart skipped a beat.

Watching the sunlight shine through the leaves of the newly green trees lining the narrow road, I had to admit to myself that I was actually going to miss Binghamton, a place I had always seen as a means to an end. I was going to miss meetings in the office every Wednesday and Sunday. This thought scared me. I wanted to ignore this feeling, to throw myself into my schoolwork and pick up extra shifts so I wouldn’t need to acknowledge it.

Then, I remembered that there was a time in my life when I felt like a zombie, hollow and frail, just going through the motions. So, I began to sit with this feeling. When I’d walk back to my car late at night after production and the campus was still — the only sounds were the occasional breeze and the chiming of the clock tower. Or when the heavy fog that always seems to loom over Binghamton lifted, and I could actually see the hills and the river.

Of course, Pipe Dream taught me about journalism, how to conduct an interview and how to write a lede, but it also taught me to be in the moment. It’s good to be scared, it’s good to feel your heart skip a beat.

Sarah Lettieri, a senior majoring in English, is a news intern.