I didn’t want to write this column at first. Not because I have nothing to say, but because I didn’t feel qualified. After all, I come from an awkward position where I quit working for The Daily Iowan freshman year, only to crawl back three years later.

So, let’s talk about that.

Balancing academics, a job, and a social life is tricky in college. My freshman year, I struggled to succeed at any of the three. As a small-town girl with negligible social skills, Iowa City and the University of Iowa swallowed me up. I quit working as a news reporter for the sake of my mental health, which was at the same time a wise decision and one I came to regret.

I soon found other activities to fill the void, but I couldn’t shake away thoughts of what I could have accomplished had I persevered. After all, the DI is what drew me to the UI’s campus. A copy editor position that opened my senior year provided an opportunity to try again.

Copy editing isn’t something I plan to make a career out of — I’m a data journalist by trade. But I like to see the two as skills that flex the same muscles in my brain. It can sometimes feel like a math equation, reworking a clunky sentence by fixing AP style mistakes and strengthening word choice to help a reporter’s story come through. It’s been a privilege to play this role in making news happen.

I’ve learned more about grammar over the last year than I may ever need to know. But I’ve also learned a valuable lesson on how to chase the things that are important to me. Both skills helped me immensely.

In a few weeks, I’ll be packing my bags for an internship with The Wall Street Journal’s data team in New York. Reflecting on my time at the university, I can’t say I regret too many of the decisions that led me here, but I may have been left with one regret if I didn’t give the DI another chance.

Before I’m gone for good, I have a few acknowledgements I want to make.

First, thank you to Sabine Martin for dragging me back to the DI because she thought I had a good eye for detail. I’ve always taken that to mean I’m fussy and nit-picky, but that’s also true. I also want to thank her for letting me borrow her blue light glasses on print nights. My eyeballs wouldn’t have survived the academic year without them.

I want to shout out our design editor, Marandah Mangra-Dutcher, for being someone I can geek out with about numbers and data visualizations. My secret Santa, Jerod Ringwald, also deserves a special mention for consistently “forgetting” my gift before buying me subpar Chipotle three weeks later. I wanted this in writing so he can never live it down.

Finally, I want to thank everyone on staff for welcoming me back. I’ll admit I was hesitant to re-enter the newsroom, but I quickly learned I had nothing to worry about. Except everyone’s misuse of commas, of course.

To all the underclassmen returning to the newsroom next year: Keep going, and don’t forget to keep the AP Stylebook webpage pinned to your web browser.