A Bittersweet Ending

BY HALLEY ROGERS


       Four years ago, I sat in the very last row of the Memorial Hall watching Friday Night Live. I was so impressed by how many skits the Mass Media class had produced and by the overall flow of the movie. As an amateur film maker who had just picked up a camera a few months earlier, I had been experimenting with it. I would spend hours playing with Windows Movie Maker editing the footage I had collected. Seeing how hard it was to put a film together; from putting the script together to finding interesting angles and then putting it altogether to music and other audio, I respected the Mass Media students for all their work. I wanted my movies to be as well done as the Mass Media students'. Sitting there watching, I couldn't wait for the day that I would be one of the students sitting in the front row watching all of my work I had done for the past five weeks on the big screen.
        When that day finally came, it was different than I had expected it would be. Sitting there in the front row with the screen towering over me, I was a little overwhelmed. As each skit would play, I noticed that I was focusing less on what was happening in front of me. Instead, seeing the bus finale brought me back to frantically trying to teach everyone the moves and trying to get the clips to match up with the audio. It was a whole new experience for me watching my own work instead of just being an observer. I was reminded of all the hard work my classmates and I had put into Friday Night Live. I found that watching Friday Night Live was bittersweet. I was so happy with all the work we had all done, but I was having a hard time grasping that ASP was coming to a close.
         Four years ago, I couldn't have anticipated tearing up during the introductions. I didn't have any idea how much I was going to miss my classmates and the bonds we had formed. I would just like to thank all the Mass Media students, as well as JB and Meagan, for making this such a wonderful experience.