As I sit down to write my final column with The News, I have no idea where to begin.

I don’t want it to be one of those cheesy, “I had such a great time, thanks for the memories,” type of column but I feel as if it is inevitable.

In the beginning, I did not want to come to Murray State. Living in the south was not something I really wanted to do, as I felt I would not find anyone who loved big cities, deep-dish pizza and had a love of rock music quite like my own.

I wanted to go to the University of Illinois at Chicago and live in the city. Even though I was originally accepted, they didn’t have the exact program I wanted so I went kicking and screaming all the way to Murray, expecting the worst.

My first few days here were absolutely miserable. I felt as if everyone already had their own group of friends, and being a transfer student I would never find friends my own age.

I walked campus all alone on the Monday before classes began to get a feel of the campus and figure out where all my classes were located. When I saw what seemed to be old friends reuniting with one another on campus I thought I was destined to be forever alone.

But, alas, on the first day of classes I met someone I?could call my friend. Jaci Kohn was in my second class at Murray State, and my third and my fourth. That first semester we had practically every class together.

Although from the looks of it, it may have seemed as if we had nothing in common, deep down we related on so many levels. And for those levels we didn’t relate on, we still understood and respected the other person’s views.

For a while, it was just Jaci and me. To be honest, she was the only real close friend I had during my time here. I knew I could tell her anything and she could do the same with me.

But it wasn’t just her that made my time here worthwhile.

Last year, it was about this time that I met Devin Griggs. Well, we actually briefly met (and by briefly I mean I saw him in the newsroom occasionally) in the spring of 2012 but it was not very memorable.

It wasn’t until September of that year that we began to talk. He complimented me on my second column, about the Bruce Springsteen concert I had recently attended. He thought the way to my heart was through Bruce, and, well, he was right.

He might have played up his love for Bruce as a way to try to impress me, but I did the same for him with politics. But from that stemmed a loving relationship that I cherish so, so much.

If it wasn’t for these two, I don’t know where I would be today.

In my first column ever I wrote about all my friends and family and the things I would miss from home. And now, I can not only add these two people to that list, but also my friends from the newspaper, who I hold so dearly to my heart. Love you guys.

Column by Savannah Sawyer, Staff Writer