Senior Letters: Tommy Bender
The Gettysburgian celebrated the graduation of several writers and editors this spring. Photo courtesy of www.ccsf.edu.
By Tommy Bender, Co-Editor-in-Chief
I never thought I’d ever have to do this. I’m not the best at summing up everything that has been important or integral to my experience writing for the The Gettysburgian, but I’ll give it a shot.
So Sean Parke is the first person I have to thank. Well, actually John Janda and Chris Holwick from La Salle but really Sean from Gettysburg because I started out as a writer for the Sports section and he was my editor. At the end of the year, he asked me to become to Sports Editor, and I quickly turned the Sports section (usually the last two pages) into the real front page of The Gettysburgian. And everyone knows it.
But really, my two years as Sports editor would have been horrible if it was not for my great writers, including: Rob Lagno, Kerry Cunningham, Caitlin Shubick, Sean Johnson, Becca Johnson, Tommy Harkins, Derek Bloom, Mike Elisio and many others.
And I can’t forget the work of Sean Parke and Sarah Flynn who served as Editors-in-Chief (Sean ’09-’10 and Sarah ’10-’11). Sean taught me everything I know about laying out the Sports section and Sarah trained me during the last few weeks of the Spring 2011 semester in preparation for the upcoming semester. One more thank you to the Leo Vaccaro.
This has been an amazing experience for me, and I’m really still surprised that I was able to become the head of the student newspaper. Of course I wouldn’t have been able to do this without Arielle Distasio (my Co-Editor-in-Chief) and Joel Berg (the advisor), but still, I’m grateful that I was given this opportunity. For three years I worked for the paper and made my best effort to make the Sports section the best part of the paper. And then I became Co-Editor-in-Chief, and it became my goal to make the entire issue the best paper, each and every time. It really became a fifth course for me, and every Wednesday I made sure to dedicate my time to The Gettysburgian. I take great pride in everything I did, and I hope all of you appreciate the work that Arielle and I put into this paper. Some of the happiest moments of my college life have been when I’ve seen people stop by the newspaper boxes and pick up the latest issue of The Gettysburgian. So thank you.
It has been one hell of a ride, and I am thankful for everything that I have done and have been able to do because of the College. Do whatever you can whenever it happens. No regrets: just go ahead with it. This has been the most amazing four consecutive years of my life, and thank you all for reading The Gettysburgian and supporting me along the way.
I’m actually sad to leave this office: the place that often times drove me crazy but gave me some of my closest friends.
Tommy gonna do one more.
Best,
Tommy Bender
