Not many people know I’m an older student who took the long, winding road back to college after 16 years of being a stay-at-home mom.

Relearning how to learn and adjusting to being part of a new community all involved some adjustments.

The pandemic was a time of unease and fear, but for me, it was also a time of contemplation about the things that I had wanted to accomplish in life. In a time of uncertainty, I realized that there were a lot of goals that I had set for myself when I was younger that I still needed to achieve, not just for myself but for my family, especially my parents.

I promised that I would eventually return to school after getting married and finishing my degree. This was the only thing they asked of me when I got married when I was 20.

While it hasn’t been easy, it’s also been a time when I could embrace the idea of community and my support system. My husband and kids who had to change their expectations of me completely, had to step in and handle some of the things I used to do for them and become more independent. They stepped up and supported me every step of the way.

It wasn’t just family. Everyone I work with has reinforced that idea of community. For those of you who don’t interact with us daily, if you saw us together as a group, you would understand that The Collegian staff embodies the term community. There is plenty of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our personal lives and appearance.

We have older students, younger students, students from different racial backgrounds, and students from different nationalities. We all came together under the banner of free press, sharing stories that are important to the TCC community, its students, faculty, staff and the community at large who spend a lot of time on our campuses for various events. The friends and connections I made along the way have made all the difference.

Academically, learning journalism hands on at The Collegian has had a bigger impact then attending lectures at a university.

Telling these stories under the guidance of our advisers, production manager and administrative assistants has been the best experience of my career so far.

Every member of this team cares about what’s happening across the district. They care about every campus, and we work really hard to tell stories that every campus can be proud of. Reporters, designers, photographers and multimedia professionals all work together every single week, on top of family commitments, second jobs and very busy class schedules.

I couldn’t be prouder of the work we’ve done the last two semesters, during which I’ve been editor-in-chief, or of the feedback we’ve gotten from other people across the district. We have received the kindest, most encouraging calls, emails and people stopping us in the hallways to tell us that they liked a news story or the whole newspaper issue.

Even people who don’t always like our headlines or the stories have championed our ability and constitutional right to tell those stories even if it sheds light on issues they don’t want to be public.

Unfortunately, there won’t be a next story by me on The Collegian after this paper. I finish my own race to graduation, transfer to university and start my first internship at the Star-Telegram this summer.

I am getting closer to my parents’ dreams of seeing their oldest child graduate.

While it’s sad, the work we’ve been doing and everything I’ve learned from our advisers and our team has prepared me for this moment. I walk away to find another community to tell stories and to continue the work I started here, even if it’s during a political climate where the First Amendment is being squeezed out.

Thank you for your readership, and thank you to The Collegian team who have worked very hard to bring this community weekly news.