Response to this entire semester so far

In a little less than two months, I will be walking across the stage at Mizzou Arena as a graduate of the University of Missouri. Therefore, since the end is (almost) in sight, I want to take a moment before I go on my final spring break to reflect on the last four years of my life here in Columbia, Missouri and look forward into the uncertain future. It's been a fun but arduous four years. I've been granted the opportunity to work on a variety of publications, from daily and weekly newspapers to weekly and monthly magazines. And I've learned a great deal as a result. 

At the beginning of my journey here at the University of Missouri, I was filled with hope and optimism for the journalism industry, even in the print journalism world. But now, as I come closer to stepping across that stage, I begin to wonder how journalism will look over the next five years and where I will end up. As major newspapers begin laying off workers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer moves to a completely digital format and the nation's economy worsens, I wonder what will happen to the world of journalism. But I know that there will always be a need for news and for journalists to report that news. Now how that information will look in the next five years may be completely different than how it is presented today. But I believe my work as a journalist will still be needed sometime, somewhere down the road post-graduation.