I was on a mission. I wandered the back streets of State College that I had never traversed before, trying not to get lost. I felt eons away from East Halls -- the only safe zone in a brand new freshman's world. I needed to find and interview someone walking a dog, which proved infinitely harder to find than one would think.

I was on my first reporting assignment as a Collegian candidate.

"It's a great story," my editor had said when he pitched it to me. For reporters, this is code for something that must be covered, but that nobody wants to cover themselves. I knew this even then.

The story was about a dog flu epidemic in America. The dog flu wasn't in Pennsylvania or any nearby states and was not a serious health threat to most of the dogs that it did infect. It was the bottom of the barrel. But, as a new candidate, I too was at the bottom of the barrel. I had to start somewhere.

I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Would I always be stuck writing stories I didn't care about, or worse, stories that didn't even make a difference to the people that read them? This work was far too hard to write about inconsequential things.

I didn't know it then, but writing for the Collegian would actually bring me to some of the most interesting, meaningful and just plain hilarious experiences of my life.

I watched traditional Cambodian dance. I interviewed a student whose family had suffered at the cruel hands of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime. I saw a student with beautiful, long, flowing hair shave her head bare in solidarity with one of her professors who was suffering from leukemia. I talked with a male student whose girlfriend had been raped and he told me about how he used that pain as a catalyst to help start the Penn State chapter of One in Four -- an organization of men educating other men about sexual assault.

I covered the celebration of Diwali by a student group, and it was the first time I had seen Hindu prayer. I reported on a shoe display in which each pair of shoes represented Americans and Iraqis killed in Iraq. Inside one of the boots was tucked a letter from a father to his son who died in service. When he talked about his son's death he said, "Isn't God good in all that he does? I know that He is." Even though I couldn't fit that memorable quote from that letter into my article, I never forgot it. It was the strongest show of faith and positivity I had ever encountered -- and it came from a man who had lost a son only two years my senior.

I also had the opportunity to see how America's "food insecure" live --if only for a short time -- by spending only 50 cents a day on food for one week. In an interview with the director of the State College Food Bank for the same column, she described what it was like growing up hungry.

To the subjects of my articles and columns: I have tried to be worthy to tell your stories.

I've written about the Holocaust and been threatened by those already wanted by police for hate crimes and death threats against other journalists.

I've criticized those who hid behind the anonymity of Juicycampus.com to defame others, knowing that my name would appear on the site as a result of my column.

It's been one wild ride -- a ride that I could not have imagined having to end a year prematurely. But, although I have a year left at PSU, this will be my last column.

For a 21-year-old who is not yet an expert in, well ... anything, this has been a daunting and humbling experience. Far too often I did not have adequate answers for the people who wrote to me, but I hope I have made them feel less alone.

On the other side, I've heard from people who said my weekly dose of printed sarcasm was the highlight of their days and the reason they picked up the paper. And for that, I'm grateful.

And, from the e-mails I have had the honor to receive from Collegian readers, I know I have managed to touch, piss off, inform and interest at least some people along the way.

Caitlin O'Malley is a senior majoring in international politics and public relations and has been a Daily Collegian columnist since 2007. Her e-mail is cmo160@psu.edu.