Ava’s Goodbye

Well, the time has come for me to log out. Working on the Mirror has been a dream – a dream that Angelina and I created together. We started with a lot of ideas – meeting at a coffee shop over the summer and scribbling them all down. Although many were too ambitious to start with, they reflected our enthusiasm for this project. In the fall when we finally got our website and club started, it began to feel like our dream was being put into action.

The execution was a lot harder than we thought it would be and getting ready for a website release wasn’t as linear as we hoped. We needed time to develop ideas and build a structure that would last. I hope that’s what we did. We hit some road blocks, and some articles were written way before our website went live. But our staff remained dedicated and patient as we went along, creating content that made our website an instant success when it was completed in January. It felt amazing to publish our website, everything we had been doing had been leading up to that moment. Finally, all the hard work our staff had put in was available for everyone to see. With every organization like this one, there are things to work out, but we successfully continue to update our paper and publish the lovely news that everyone works on.

It feels weird to leave the Mirror so soon after its creation – part of me feels so unfinished. As it continues to grow, I know there will be so much more to do, more changes and improvements to make. I know the future is bright for the Mirror and part of me wishes I could stay just to ensure the success. But I’m not worried. We’re leaving our hard work in the charge of Gina and Maria, two upcoming seniors that will see the Mirror through even more growth. I know that along with the rest of the staff, they will build the newspaper up. They will move mountains and shatter glass ceilings – I can’t wait to see the future of the Mirror.

We were the beginning. I’m so proud of the simple idea that turned into several ideas that turned into a club and eventually into newspaper. Spreadsheets and assignments turned into articles, website themes turned into an online paper – this was the beginning of the Matignon Mirror as it exists.  It was the beginning, but only the beginning. I’m proud of the beginning, but I can’t wait to see the next step.

But anyways, this is goodbye for me. Thank you for supporting us along this journey. To our wonderful staff, thank you for all your hard work and dedication, for all of the amazing talents you’ve used here, for putting up with our shaky start, thank you. Thank to everyone for reading the Mirror, for following us on twitter, for clicking our links, for scrolling through articles or looking at photos, for enjoying the creative submissions, or sharing any of our content. You’ve made it possible for us to create the dream, and you make it possible for the reality to continue. Thank you for being here at the beginning, I hope you continue to support the Mirror as it grows. I know I will. Thank you, and goodbye.

-Ava Berarducci