Tons of work. Tons of stress. Late nights spent working on something that’s due the next morning.

Late nights spent “working” on Facebook, YouTube and meme sites when you have something that’s due the next morning.

Making friends.

Sounds like the college experience summed up in five sentences, right?

It has certainly been my college experience—but not with classes and exams. It’s been my experience with The Flor-Ala, and I’ve loved every minute of it.

For the past two years, I’ve been editing grammar, punctuation and AP Style as the copy editor, and now I’m moving on up to news/managing editor in my third year. I’ll be a senior this year, and I’m going to graduate college having spent 75 percent of my time here working on this paper.

But I still love it. There hasn’t been one boring moment, and there won’t be.

And that’s because I’ve found something I love to do. Despite what (seemingly) everyone tells you, college is not only about making good grades, and it’s not only about partying. Both of those things are great in moderation, but getting good experience doing something you love is where it’s at.

For me, it’s journalism, and writing, and being informed, and late nights, and stress. For others, it might be none of those, but there is something for them.

They just have to find it.

I love this job. I’ve learned more working at The Flor-Ala than in most of my classes, and I’ve made some of my best friends in college—not to mention the fact that I’ve gotten some amazing work experience.

All that to say I’ve found my place at The Flor-Ala, and I believe a place exists for everyone on campus.

Now that I’ve found my place as news/managing editor, I plan to keep The Flor-Ala’s readers informed about all the news important to them on campus. I will continue to improve the news section in every aspect I know.

But I need some help. At The Flor-Ala, we depend on students—they’re the reason we exist. So, I need your feedback, students. If you like what I’m doing with the news section, tell me. If you don’t, tell me that, too. You can email me, find me on Facebook, tweet at me on Twitter (@TheFlorAlex), call me at the office or just plain shout at me across campus.

Even if all I’m going to get is hate mail, I’m still looking forward to it.