Dearest The Pitt News,

This is my breakup letter. I know it’s tough to hear, but after five years, it’s time for me to graduate, move on to pastures bereft of my beloved daily school newspaper. I think back to the first time I picked you up — you helped me, day one, to learn about clubs and bus lines, where to eat and what to watch. In February, you returned to my hands in a thick, juicy Sex Edition. Through bomb threat updates and award-winning exposés about Student Government Board drop outs, you kept me up to the minute about scandals and celebrations on campus.

Do you remember when you helped me find my first apartment? Or when you let me sneak onto your cover three times? Oh, for more days to laugh together about weird layouts, mislabeled photos and completely duplicated pages! Never forget, I love you just as much for your brain as for your quirks. Quirks that inspired my own Pittiful News work. If not for your two-day tale of a Cathedral Climber, I’d never have had the courage to share my two-broken-escalator journey as a Posvar Prowler.

But most of all, my terrific TPN, thank you for letting me witness your beautiful transformations. Maybe the rubes missed your face-lifts, both print and digital, but my do you clean up. You showed daring bravery, surpassing the closed-minded style guides by affirming the pronouns of my transgender friends. And yet, the diploma looms, and our time becomes but a fleeting moment in your storied history.

As many savoured issues yellow in a brimming canvas bag, so shall my memories of the ink on paper that made me glad.

B.D. Wahlberg

Fifth year Jewish Studies, Legal Studies, Psychology, and Theatre Arts, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences

Class of 2016