I’ve been looking towards this moment for almost four semesters. The 12-hour productions come to an end and so does the dread of Sunday emails filled with punctuation corrections at best, serious complaints from students and administration at worst. But it also makes me anxious knowing that, for the first time since my freshman Fall, The Gazelle will no longer be a defining trait of who I am.

Watching this project grow from the pipe dream of Alistair and Amanda to the well established, professional institution that it is today, fills me with pride and hope. Pride in knowing that I have been part of a wonderful group of individuals who, through belief and effort, raised this from the ground up while maintaining its high journalistic standards. Hope, because I know that Zoë Hu and Joey Bui, who will replace me as the next editors-in-chief, will be more than capable in taking The Gazelle to new places. I owe everything that The Gazelle has accomplished to the mentoring of its founding members, to the satellite efforts of the editors-at-large and to the daily grind of a wonderful team of reporters, editors and the managing team.

As the semester ends and some go home to celebrate the holidays, I ask you to remember that the hardest times, those in which you question yourself for ever starting some wishful project — times you want to desperately quit something, knowing there might be no visible return for your efforts — that these times are the times you’ll remember. No one remembers five-hour stints watching Netflix, but watching something come together, as gruelling a process as it might be, lasts a lifetime.

To our staff and readers, thank you. It’s been a great ride.