The Daily Collegian's news division has a whiteboard in between the offices of the editor-in-chief and both managing editors.

It usually bears announcements, like next semester's staff list, a sign-up sheet for the Collegian's fall formal and a weekly running tally headlined "Travis's Deadline Challenge." It's pretty cluttered.

On most days last summer, though, it remained blank except for a cryptic message every day. The first one, "Knowledge = Power," is a sort of mantra instilled in every reporter and editor at the Collegian. The next day, it read "You are a valued member of your community." And the next day, it was a different message, and it changed every day for weeks.

One day, Travis Larchuk, currently the Collegian's managing editor of design, fessed up. Until then, none of us on the summer staff knew very much about Travis. He was mostly quiet, but when we found out he'd been leaving the whiteboard messages, we all kind of opened up.

Now, we hang out all the time. He's one of the funniest people I know; he finds jokes in the mundane, things that nobody else could have thought of. Before I knew Travis, I thought Beauty and the Beast was a great love story; now, I just think Belle has Stockholm syndrome.

As I type, he's wearing this stupid multi-colored beanie with a spinning fan on top. Sometimes, it's a bit much.

He's always had a peculiar personality, going back to those messages on the board. And it's carried over into Venues: He's the reason for the design of this thing, the black bar on the cover, the teasers and the logo. He's the reason for everything on the Opinion page, including the Sexy Meter, the Would You Rather question and the cartoon. He's even the reason the "i" in my signature is dotted with a heart.

I've done the best I could carrying out the Venues Editor position, but my job wouldn't be anywhere near the same if it weren't for Travis. In that sense, he's had a huge effect on my life. In other senses, too, because besides being hilarious, he's a great friend.

Two weeks ago, next semester's staff list went up underneath that whiteboard in the office, and Travis's name wasn't on it. That's because next semester, Travis will be in Florida working a professional job at a professional newspaper (which just means he'll be doing the same job, but he'll be getting paid for it). God willing, they'll let his creative juices flow like we did starting this spring when we started the Venues redesign.

I'm sure that when Travis is living in the 55-degree Florida weather and earning a living wage while we work for free in the tropical paradise of State College next month, he'll rue the day he decided to finish his Penn State experience. It'll be a nice reminder of how great it was, working past midnight every night to put out a newspaper every weekday.

Apologies to Travis, whose naturally dry, monotone voice is representative of his usually stoic outward attitude. He probably hates this. So, as he would say: less talk, more rock.

Enjoy this week's Venues, which was designed by Travis and features a story on a 69-hour rock festival at one of Travis's favorite haunts, Chronic Town (page 14). It's also got a column by Travis on the Opinions page (18).

Enjoy winter break and your holiday of choice; enjoy the last days of 2007 and the first days of 2008; enjoy coming back to another semester of Venues and the rest of the Collegian. And if you're moving on like Travis, don't forget to keep up on the Web site: venues.psucollegian.com.

But most of all: Enjoy your weekend, and Trav, enjoy your life.