When I arrived in Salt Lake City, I did not know a damn thing about Utah. I had looked west on a whim, following a voice in the back of my head to see the world. My family was relocating to San Antonio, and I reasoned that whether I was in Oklahoma or somewhere else, it would be a flight home regardless. The mountains were a bit taller than they were back in Oklahoma. Maybe significantly taller. To me, it was perfect.
My freshman year was turbulent in the ways freshman years tend to be. I was looking for something, but was unsure of what. I first found that “something” in climbing, a discipline that shaped way too many of my undergraduate decisions. Climbing brought me places and experiences that no one in my bloodline had before. Some of my best friends have come from this community — I will never forget all the times I spent laughing with them atop peaks and frozen waterfalls. The Utah desert became, and is still, one of my favorite places, and I highly recommend anyone reading this to climb a desert tower at least once in their lifetime.
I also found it in my sophomore year starting at The Daily Utah Chronicle. I got a gig as a tutor in the Writing Center on campus, where I met Cael Roberts, who eventually became one of my best friends. At the time, Cael was the news editor at The Chronicle and was reportedly desperate for writers. He proposed one day that I should join, and without much thought, I agreed. I wanted to get more involved in the campus community while bettering my writing skills, but I had no idea what that decision would really mean for my future.
Cael was my editor for a few weeks before his promotion to managing editor, when Josi Hinds took over. As news editor, she put me on stories that tested my scope and my comfort level, and she never let me off too easily. At the U, I really do think she was the first mentor I ever had, and the value of mentorship is something that I cannot overstate. I owe more of my journalistic development to her than I could properly say in this space.
In my junior year, Addy Cowley and I were put on an investigative piece about administrative overreach. When it was published, it became a significant turning point for both of us and for The Chronicle as a whole. That story took everything we had, and there were plenty of people who did not think we would accomplish what we did. It took us interviewing multiple anonymous sources who took weeks to trust us, tracking down a professor in Louisiana, and above all, having the courage to stand up to the administration. That story changed things. It was hard not to notice the shift in how The Chronicle was perceived, and how Addy and I were perceived within it. When the yearly change in leadership came, and Cael and Josi graduated along with many others, I was promoted to news editor and Addy became assistant news editor.
Taking over as the news editor is an experience that I will never forget. It shaped me more as a person, more as a leader, than I really think any other thing I have ever done. We settled into our roles during a transition year where there was significant restructuring in how the desk was run, as well as a major increase in the number of writers. Our reporting was elevated, and I learned more about myself, how to manage people and how to balance my life than I have in any experience I had before.
I came here as a flatland boy from Oklahoma and am leaving as something entirely different. The Chronicle gave me that. I have a sense of purpose, garnered through every Wednesday desk meeting, every story we published and every writer developed. The community and the people, however, are what this newspaper really is and what made it for me.
Never in my life did I think I would be a climber. Never in my life did I think I would be an editor of a newspaper. Never in my life did I think I would be surrounded by so many mentors, friends and family who I love. So that really would be my advice, to anyone who cares enough to listen or who cares enough to take something from what I have to say: Go West. Go anywhere. Go to that place that is the voice in the back of your head. It may just lead you to some of the best years of your life.
