The following was published June 4th, 2009 and is the first and last article that I have written for the paper.

George Chen

Unlike most of the staff, I never walked a beat or spent a late night in the production room. I never waged battle against The Koala in sloshball or spent a President's Day weekend in Vegas attempting to eat my way through the Bellagio buffet. In fact, this is the first and last article that I have written for The Guardian. There's a fairly good reason why; it takes me ages to write a single article, and along the way there are long bouts of writer's block and false starts. In fact, this article you're reading is version three or four of my many partial rough drafts. My inability to pump out articles at a moment's notice also explains why I have spent my four years at The Guardian as an advertising designer instead of a writer.

Working at The Guardian kept me fairly close to the eye of the storm and showed me that UCSD was not entirely devoid of activity as I had been lead to believe when I first arrived. My hiring came at the same time a scandal broke at SRTV over porn being aired on a student-run television channel. For those who missed it, the story hit national news, and SRTV was subsequently shut down, in a series of rather chaotic events. Other stories followed – wildfires, the opening of Price Center East, the annual debate over the Grove, and of course the annual push to raise student fees through one means or another. I leave UCSD with the story of a bird dive-bombing students in Price Center.

The Guardian is unequivocally the best place to work on campus. Where else does one get to debate the grammatically correct past tense of “ghostriding the whip?” Or walking in on a Wednesday afternoon to see an editor emphatically singing Celine Dion while on his knees. I will always remember crashing classes on Sun God, laughing at the crazy letters to the editor that manage to find their way to us (one in particular claimed Scarlett Johanssen was a cloned human), and laughing at the marketing staff comparing their cute friends on Facebook. Oh and occasionally we put out a newspaper issue or two.

A few words of thanks before I leave. First, thanks to the business staff, the two Mikes (now down to one), James the free agent, Superman Alfredo, and the business manager position that turned over like a professorship in Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, set straight by Anna and currently headed by Monica. Thanks also to all the other advertising designers who have joined me at some point The Guardian, including Laura, Jennifer, Nick, Kim, Brandon, and Jenny, you guys are awesome. And finally thanks to all four years' worth of Guardian staff, lead by Grant, Heather, Charles, and Matt, for keeping the Guardian a fun place to work.

As I pondered over how to end this, I realized that I am severely underqualified to leave words of wisdom for people to read, but I will just say that college isn't about locking yourself in your room and studying 24/7, nor is it about partying it up every night until your liver takes you to court for abuse and neglect. College is about finding the happy medium between the two, and surviving to tell the tale.