Where the hell do I even begin.

The journey through the past four years that has transformed me from a quiet kid addicted to video games who never left his room into the lovable lunatic you know today has unquestionably been the best time in my life.

As much as I bitch about some of the bullshit that goes on in this school I do truly love this place, many of my favorite memories have been made here.

The professors are some of the most entertaining characters and best mentors I’ve ever had the privilege of studying under.

Remembering how Richard Mace threw a table during class, how Dr. Ellen Mandel called all her students “kiddies,” Dr. Lawrence Hundersmarck making me question if he’s God himself or not, kicking other teams’ asses during Model United Nations with Paul Londrigan, and of course everything related to Kevin Czerwinski still makes me smile. If anyone in the administration is reading this, they should all be given substantial raises.

However, the most valuable lesson I learned during college is to interact with and get to know the people around you, almost everyone has something unique to offer.

Invest in the people you want to stay friends with, and be grateful for them. Anyone who means anything at all to me will know how far I’m willing to go for the people I care about, many times to my own detriment. However, the sacrifices have always been worth it in the end, to me at least.

That quiet kid with a Yankee hat in your freshmen UNI 101 class asking you to join the Chronicle with him, bubbly girl in your Sports Journalism class, hard-ass old journalism professor, sketchy dude asking you to join his fraternity called Pi Lambda Phi, and that angry Albanian in your Writing for Print Media class –that you’re not actually registered for but go to anyway- might end up being your best friends one day.

Sincerely, the friends I made at Pace have shaped who I am as a person, and gotten me out of my shell. I would be nothing without you guys, you’re my family, and I would die for you if needed.

Of course, I also owe a massive debt of gratitude to the Chronicle as an organization as well. It’s given me a massive amount of influence, at times more than I realized.

It’s made me very happy to have people come up to me and thank me for writing about one thing or another, or saying what they were afraid to say themselves. And there is nothing like the rush of spending all night in the office working on the next big story and then the satisfaction of seeing everyone talking about it in the morning.

Anyone who feels like they don’t have a voice here, please use the Chronicle as your outlet, it will make a difference and don’t be afraid of what the consequences for saying what you want to say are.

If me, a skinny white kid, can survive four years here with having a huge mouth, so can anyone else.

Not only has the Chronicle made me some of my best friends, but given me some of my greatest enemies as well. In my time here I’ve battled with the FBI who accused me of misquoting them even though I recorded everything they said, a psychopath wanting to get me arrested for taking pictures to try to find out information, another psychopath saying “watch yourself” in Kessel when they were unhappy with me writing about how they broke the law and put people’s lives at risk, as well as Pace’s administration and athletic departments.

So to all my enemies, all of whom I’ve so badly beaten using nothing but a pen, a notebook, an iPhone, a laptop, and the first amendment, thank you so much for giving me the experience I’m going to use to be the best journalist in the world.

And don’t worry, “The Hidden Impact” will still be lurking in the shadows of Pace should he ever be needed again.

Finally, as for the next generation of Chronicle writers, I leave you with one final task; fuck shit up and take names.

Peace,

Joe Tucci

Former Managing Editor