Just two years ago, I was just a scared, nervous first-year scouring Freeborn Hall trying to find the entrance to Lower Freeborn. I wanted to keep writing sports for a newspaper, and The California Aggie was the perfect opportunity to do so.
Today, that same timid, shy kid is the incoming editor in chief of The Aggie.
If former Editor in Chief Adam Loberstein – the first person I met when I came down to pick up an application – had said I would have his position in two years, I would have called him crazy. Becoming the boss of The Aggie was not on my college to-do list the fall of 2009. But it is on my to-do list now.
My tenure at The Aggie, and journalism in general, has mainly been focused around sports. I was a sports editor in high school, freelance sports writer over the summer and sports editor here at The Aggie. Not going to lie, it will take some time for me transition from sports to non-sports.
I will miss my weekly column where I can talk about all things UC Davis sports (but really the San Francisco Giants). I will miss talking to coaches on a regular basis and picking their brain on their sport.
Nonetheless, I’m excited, yet a little overwhelmed, about taking the reins from my predecessor, Mark Ling. It will be the most pressing and stressful job I’ve ever taken, but I’m very much up to the challenge. In the next 12 months, I will have to make decisions on a scale and scope I’ve never had to before.
With that in mind, every choice I will make over the next year will be in The Aggie’s best interest. I might have to make decisions that I personally don’t agree with. That being said, not everyone will be happy with the choices I will make as editor in chief. This is something that might take me a while to get accustomed to.
Nonetheless, this will be such a rewarding experience, and for that I’m excited. For the same reasons I’m nervous. I’m eager. I want to make those pressing decisions, and I want to oversee a $200,000 budget.
By no means am I taking this job for me, though. People recommended me for this job because they thought I would have The Aggie’s best interest at heart. I want to protect The California Aggie brand on the UC Davis campus. Doing this will be a helluva lot more difficult than it was just a few years ago. The entire Aggie staff – from the sales clerks to editors to writers to layout artists – will have to be creative, and I have no doubt that the 2011-12 staff can do so.
I want to see The Aggie thrive, and I think it’s safe to say a majority of this campus wants the same. I want every student to pick up a copy of that day’s issue before walking into class.
JASON ALPERT feels the need to recognize three people – his mom, dad and sister. These three have pushed him to be the best he can be. Without their support and words of wisdom, he would not be where he is, and for that, he can’t thank them enough. Send him an e-mail at editor@theaggie.org if you want to discuss The Aggie.
