This column has been four years coming. At first, I didn't think that I could write it. I didn't want to write it, because that meant saying goodbye.

So I put if off. I'd work on it later, I'd say to myself. And trust me, there was plenty going on in the newsroom — and on the campus — to distract me.

But now, it is later. My final deadline at the Collegian looms. But for the longest time, the words wouldn't come, the magic phrases that would encompass everything that I have experienced at this wonderful, wacky place.

Then, I realized that this column isn't about me. It's about the Collegian. It's about the countless people who work so hard to make this newspaper great, day in and day out.

This column is for those editors who give up hours of their time — time that they could be using studying or writing papers — helping young reporters learn how to write their first story.

It's for the reporters who skip their classes to cover a story not because they don't care about their grades, but because they care more about their readers. These are the people who spend hours covering a breaking story late into the night, but still get up at 6 the next morning to keep up with the developing news.

It's for the photographers who take pictures of riots, rallies and marches that face the risk of having their film confiscated or being pepper sprayed.

It's for those who walk the ethics line every day. They don't always make the right decisions, but when they make them, they spend hours thinking them through and discussing them with fellow journalists. And when they're wrong, they admit it, and they seek to correct their actions.

And for those who are staying behind, I hope that they hold fast to these ideals, and that they don't let bitter cynicism take over healthy skepticism. I hope that they remember that the Collegian is more than a student organization; it is an entire college experience. This newspaper is a historical document of campus events, and it has been for the past 114 years.

For more than a century, the Collegian also has been teaching student journalists how to be accountable to their readers, responsible to their community and ever-vigilant to their roles as gatekeepers of truth.

It is preparing us for a very noble but demanding profession. One that is not as respected as it used to be, whether journalists deserve the bad reputation. Journalism gives us the power to unlock doors that would usually be closed to any other citizen; it makes us privy to information that could hurt or help someone.

With this tremendous power, however, comes an obligation to do right and to remember that we don't do this for ourselves. It isn't about honor and glory. It isn't about bylines and credits and awards and recognition, though those things are nice.

It's about believing in the good that journalism can do.