Feminist Agenda // Taylor Kirby

Clichés tend to crop up at the difficult crossroads of our lives, a verbal barrier constructed to put distance between ourselves and whatever complex emotion we’re grappling with. We lean on them because they connect us to a lineage of like-minded people; they lack creativity, but communicate a truth in a way that is comforting in its inability to be misinterpreted. At least, that’s true for me. And here’s the phrase I can’t avoid right now: You are who you surround yourself with.

A great many The Ends are looming in my immediate future. This is the first: my final column as Leisure Editor of the Sentry. Our last issue of the year will follow shortly after. Then, I will finish my degree and take place in a ceremony that will complete my undergraduate studies. Ever the one to put up emotional roadblocks between myself and my lived experiences, even I can’t help but fall prey to sloppy sentimentality right now.

Everyone I’ve worked with at the Sentry has impressed me with the force of their creativities and passions. “Tirelessly” is the wrong adverb to apply to any college student, especially the ones who spend upwards of 30 hours a week in this office while also maintaining internships, schoolwork, and interpersonal relationships, but my coworkers’ efforts are boundless even on their most exhausted days. Many of them will also be graduating in three short weeks. I’ll miss them all dearly.

Next year, I will return to the Sentry as Editor in Chief while I begin my graduate studies. I can say with great confidence that I believe our incoming editors will honor the legacy of those who came before them and will continue to inspire me every day. More importantly, I trust that their dedication to this paper, and to CU Denver at large, will extend to all of our readers. It is our charge to surround this campus with a model of integrity and grit—and I look forward to continuing to actualize those goals in the fall.