The J-TAC

Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: Opinion

Johnathon Parker [Click to enlarge]

Howdy Texans and TexAnns!

It's been a while since that phrase has appeared on the "Opinion" page of The J-TAC. I can tell you when, as a matter of fact. Two years ago, I wrote my last Letter from the Editor, stepping down from the position of Editor-in-Chief of this paper. Two years later, this will be the last.

I took over the helm of The J-TAC in the fall of 2004 as a freshman, maybe the youngest editor the paper has had. With the help of a talented staff and supporting editorial board members, I transformed the face of Tarleton's weekly newspaper, and I got to do it for two school years.

After I stepped down, I continued on at Student Publications as a photographer for both The J-TAC and the Grassburr, Tarleton's award-winning yearbook.

It was The J-TAC that facilitated my passion for photography. This newspaper provided me with a venue through which I could showcase my work. In the last four years I've won several photography awards through the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association, an organization in which I proudly served as vice president in the 2006-2007 school year.

Since I relinquished my position, I have devoted my focus to ROTC and pursuing my commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army.

Nearly four years ago, I was a single, young, beginning college student. Today, I'm a married near-alumnus, beginning another leg of my life.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that life is a cycle of beginnings and endings. The end of high school is the beginning of college. The end of college is the beginning of a job in the "real world" -for me, a budding career as a soldier.

For my time at Tarleton, The J-TAC has been paramount. This publication has given me stress and relief, fulfillment and frustration. It has given me friends and opportunities. The J-TAC embraced me from day one and allowed me to be a part of it until the end of my time here.

Like it or leave it, dump it or read it, The J-TAC is an institution that's more Tarleton than most things. Since 1919 (and many years before that if you count the Tarletonite and its predecessors), this newspaper has done more than provide news and entertainment to this school-it has given its staff a place to thrive.

This is my last issue of The J-TAC. Soon I will enter the real world, but I know The J-TAC will keep being printed, and the readers at Tarleton will keep reading it. If you've been reading it since I've been working on it, thank you.
You made it worth it.

-Johnathon Parker
The J-TAC, 2004-2008

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