I Have One More Thing I’d Like To Say

David Pepin, Editor-In-Chief

I joined the editorial staff of Le Provocateur when I was a sophomore and pretty much since then I have told myself I wasn’t going to write a cheesy goodbye final column. Now that I’m writing my final column though, I can see that no one is above a proper goodbye.

That’s something that unfortunately my class, the class of 2020, will never get.

After four years of hard work and four years of fun times, the Assumption College class of 2020 –the final Assumption “College” graduating class–, is arriving at an unforgettable ending for all the wrong reasons. “Global pandemic” is not exactly the way I thought my college career was going to end, but unfortunately that’s how it’s going down.

People always told me that college would be over before I knew it but I didn’t think that it was actually going to literally be over before I knew it.

That’s life though, I guess.

Still, I would not change anything about my experiences at Assumption (see this is where it gets cheesy). I’ll forever be grateful for the times I’ve had and lessons I have learned. For the best friends I’ve met and the guidance that professors and advisors have given me.

Assumption really did end up giving me the best four years of my life so far. So before I leave the school that changed my life, I need everyone to know how much they meant to me these past few years.

To the club ultimate frisbee team, thank you for giving me a chance to learn how to be a leader. I joined the team my freshman year because I wanted to continue playing the sport I was passionate about in high school. Little did I know that passion would turn into the biggest project I took on in college.

I became captain in February of my freshman year as a quiet kid who had never been in charge of anything like this, but with the help and dedication of every one of my teammates over the last four years, we turned this small club into a tournament winning team that was the biggest club sports teams on campus.

Through this club I learned what it means to be a leader and what it means to put your head down and work for accomplishing a goal. It certainly changed my work ethic for the rest of my life.

To Provoc, this year comes to a disappointing end because I felt that this semester we were making incredible strides. It was truly an honor to be the Editor in Chief this year. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this position when I accepted it last year, but now I know that there was no other way I would have wanted to finish my four years as a member of this club.

I started out a staff writer my freshman year before moving to copy editor sophomore year, then sports editor junior year, and finally finishing with this year as the Editor in Chief. Look at any issues from the past four years and it would be tough to find an issue where my name isn’t in there somewhere. This was one of the most difficult projects I have had in college, but the support I had from this year’s editorial staff was inspiring.

Seriously this year’s editors did an incredible job and I know it wasn’t always easy which makes the quality of their work this year even more incredible. I’ve been a part of Le Provocateur for four years, but this year was some of the most consistently high quality journalism that I have seen in this paper because of the behind the scenes work that they all put in.

There’s really so many people at Assumption that I want to thank individually for what they did for me these past four years, but no one would want to read this if it were several thousands of words longer. It wouldn’t have been the same without my professors and advisors always challenging me, and my friends –who had become more like family by the end– who were always there for me.

It’s tough to say goodbye to something that has meant so much to me, but then again, I don’t think it will ever be a full goodbye because there is no way I would ever forget my experiences and memories at Assumption. Because it’s such a hard goodbye just means I did actually make the right choice four years ago.

I’ll admit it now that when I first stepped foot on campus on move-in day at the start of freshman year I was scared that I had made a wrong choice, scared that I picked the wrong college. I was scared, like many incoming freshmen are, of the idea of college as a whole. When I first moved in to Assumption and watched my parents drive away, my eyes were watery because I didn’t want to stay. Four years later, as I drove off campus for the last time as a student in March, my eyes were watery because I didn’t want to leave.

David Pepin, a senior, studies English Writing and Mass Communications and Marketing. He is the Editor in Chief of Le Provocateur.