As outgoing Editor-In-Chief of this fine publication, I’m granted one last perk (and quite possibly the first!): to say a ‘farewell’ and reflect on surviving the past year or so in the bowels of Gallatin E, where many a long Friday afternoon was spent dotting the “i”s, crossing the “t”s (at least a majority of them), and making sure our accomplished Sports Editor didn’t try to squeeze another picture of a rugby teammate’s bare ass into the social spread of next week’s edition.
I’m not sure where I came out in the end, but one thing’s for sure: I didn’t start with much. Having minimal to no prior newspaper experience, I was admittedly in way over my head coming into the role of Editor-In-Chief February of last year.
Luckily, I had ample support in the form of a fantastic outgoing Editor-In-Chief and enough No-Doz to kill a small horse. And things got better with time!
This year I was fortunate to have a great General Manager in Ann Spilker, a wonderful Assistant General Manager in Towne Williams, an outstanding Advertising Director in Emily Ahman, and an enthusiastic group of RCs (especially new Editor-in-Chief Bianca Tabourn and the incoming Harbus Board) who helped take the paper to bigger and better places. And finally, our very own designer, Nicole Burkart, once again lent us her talents and remained the heart and soul of the final product you see on the stands each and every week.
I hope you all have enjoyed the Harbus from time to time. It is no WSJ, but I think a decent representation of life here at HBS. In that respect, the Harbus is good. In fact, it’s made with bits of real panther, so you know it’s good.
Despite the time commitment, working with the Harbus has absolutely been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had here at HBS – and I’m sure that my memories of it will grow fonder with time. My initial interest in getting involved stemmed from a need to get my nose out of the books (in that at the time I found myself way too caught up in school and not much else), and it has definitely not only provided me a creative outlet, but also taught me a lot about managing an organization, the importance of doing what you like, and how to bend (but not break) under pressure.
Life at the Harbus has complimented all that I’ve learned here at HBS. Among other things, I now understand that SOX is not just a baseball team, debt financing makes the world go ’round (and takes me around the world), and that diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era.
Last but not least, I think there has been a great deal of support from fellow classmates: the Harbus wouldn’t be the same without you! I love it when people stop me in Spangler to tell me that 60% of the time, it works every time. For that, I’m grateful.
My grandiose parting advice? Life is a precious, precious commodity. Just because we have the world at our fingertips, it doesn’t mean that we too die in a freak gasoline fight accident.
You stay classy, Harvard Business School. Now let’s go swap knowledge about GDP and interest rates over an orange-mocha frappaccino.
