When looking back on this semester, the writers and I thought that we would give you a glimpse into our side of things, allowing you to see a little of what it takes to produce a student run paper.

The end of the semester jumped out on me like a black cat on a poorly lit street. Just when I finally settled into the job of Forum Editor, I’m facilitating our last meeting! This semester was on one hand, pretty quiet. No planes crashed into a national landmark, and school shootings and people going postal has been at a comfortable low.Here on campus, we had some armed robbers take off with some stuff, a lot of Hondas broken into or stolen, and the football team making fools of themselves. One of the biggest incidents was coach Volek getting fired.

While the rest of the world seems to be going a little crazy, or annoyingly fascinated with terrible things, Sacramento State cruises on with little interruption. Really, we are so blessed to attend such a safe place at this time.

On the other hand, being Forum Editor meant that I was doing a lot of new things. We recognized the power of our words when we criticized the food establishments on campus. Oh, boy, talk about “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!” Seriously, it made me realize that I must take the words that I speak, and especially those I write seriously, for the impacts may be quite different than expected.

Additionally, I had an awakening about the dramatic difference of writing styles. I have much more compassion now for professors when they complain about the end of the semester term papers-by the time this is published I will have attempted to edit roughly 70 600-word columns. This in itself is one of the best parts, due to the diversity of our column staff.

All of our writers strive to produce work that will be interesting and provide points that they feel are significant. Each one interviews, researches and writes their column for no monetary compensation; although the experience is just like a job, with the same level of responsibilities and consequences.

Dustin Diaz constantly strives for the truth of the matter, even if it may be uncomfortable to look at. Emails responding to his columns have incinerated my inbox.Sukeo Tacker loves women, and yet he has fired-up quite a few with his social critiques. He is never too shy to point out inequality and hypocrisy.

Shonda Swilley, as one of the few female columnists, provided a refreshing look at issues facing women and people of color. She has a sharp eye for what people are thinking about.

Jason Okamoto is in a league of his own. When I read his work it’s like sitting on Mars, listening to Kraftwerk and laughing. And I mean that in the best way.Tying into a common theme of columns of this year, we have a very ethnically, racially, culturally (pick your adjective) diverse group. I’m the whitest one of them, with the rest showing some of the diversity that we see every day on campus. I’m pleased to note this, for it was one of my goals to open up the Forum section to a wide range of viewpoints.We have covered alien interventions, the behavior of Jesus, justice thwarted by race, why we should go to war and why we shouldn’t. Associated Students, Inc., the Athletic Department, the Department of Defense and the President of the United States have all been attacked and admired by our section; representing the ideas and arguments that we hear outside the walls of the Hornet.

This looks to be my last time editing the Forum section, as I am off to study abroad, and by the way,that is something you should all do while still in college. But you’ll hear more about that when I send my columns from Australia next year.

Samantha Hinrichs learned how to knit this last weekend. Email her at [email protected]. Any feedback can be posted at www.statehornet.com.