While I can’t necessarily call this a farewell column given the fact that I will be around Rocky Top taking classes and serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Beacon this summer, I still need to say some words.

I have made lifelong friends here, and that’s a rare blessing that I hope bestows upon all of you who still have time here at this university.

When I first transferred to the University of Tennessee, I was lost. It probably wasn’t anything to rave about. My predicament was no different than other young people’s, but I blew the whole decision out of proportion due to my borderline neurosis and my perpetual ability to drastically enlarge petty things.

But that’s changing.

Somewhere in between the time I arrived here as an unsure 20-year-old and now as a 22-year-old young woman who more self assured (it would be pretentious for me to say I have everything figured out), I found a niche, and thus an escape from worrying about all the little things.

I suppose working at The Daily Beacon has given me a type of purpose, and I don’t mean some tedious schedule someone adopts when working somewhere new. What I’m trying to say is that emotionally, this workplace has matured me in a way that I believe I wouldn’t have if I were to have joined another club or place my application at another job.

I’m biased with the type of work I do, but there’s no amount of knowledge that can prepare someone to form honest relationships with people. Those only come with time, patience and a general faith in humanity. And when you finally release all of the predetermined inhibitions about life, people and whatever else StumbleUpon has taught you, you start to build something solid and genuine.

The relationships I have formed here have given me purpose because I understand people are worth more than what they can do for you, and instead how they can make you feel.

I left my old school because I was searching for something tangible — an object of some sort that I could pick up and have it suddenly transform every problem I had into gold. It was a shallow yearning, and unfortunately no one in my circle had the guts to tell me. Also, the journalism at my school was inadequate for the amount of money I was shoveling in; ain’t nobody got time for that. So with the motivation to find a more fulfilling journalism curriculum in mind (and the hopes of filling some type of emotional void in my heart) I set my sights on UT.

Best decision I made.

I transferred from a school in Chicago, so when I first explored the Knoxville area with my mom in August 2010, she of course thought it was irrational I was switching schools in the first place. After they were done lecturing me about that, they gawked at the fact that I returned to the state that I spent years trying to escape. I had it all wrong though — my perspective was completely off. I want to thank the relationships I have with the people here for bringing me clarity on what relating to people is really about.

Thank you for showing your bad sides and at times making me question my faith in humanity, because once I realized that people are actually human and one mistake they do unto you does not demonize them, it takes a ridiculous amount of stress off.

Simultaneously, thank you for showing me your awesome sides that instill so much faith in the human existence that it brings me to tears to think about moments like graduation that will, if only physically, separate us.

I don’t mean to sound all poetic, but I love the relationships I have built here. It is here that I have found purpose.

So if I can shed any advice, remember the relationships that go deeper than who you can rally with at games or who will dance with you at the parties. Remember the relationships that last, because when we’re all dead and gone, that’s all you will really have. The people who loved you and how you made them feel.

I hope to take some of this wisdom when I move to a new home after graduation.

— Victoria Wright is a senior in journalism and electronic media and plans to move to New York upon graduation in August. She’ll ball so hard as the Editor-in-Chief this summer and can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @vic_j_wright.