I've kept this rather secret from everyone, but now that it's over, I'll post about it. As many of you probably know, I'm the Assistant News Editor for my school paper, The State Hornet. It's not a shabby paper, if I do say so, and this semester we have a staff of about 80 people (although the number of people who do most of the work is significantly smaller).

The end of the school year is in sight, and the application process for the job of Editor in Chief rolled around again, as it does every April. People who work for the paper naturally started thinking about running for the position. I considered it several months ago, but I knew that our Opinions Editor wanted the job, and I didn't want to cause problems. The deadline got closer, and more people started applying for the job. I had already decided that I wouldn't apply, so I didn't really considering rethinking my decision.

Then, the day before Spring Break two weeks ago, the current Editor in Chief pulled me into her office and said she thought I should consider applying for the position. She asked me to think about it over vacation, as the deadline to submit applications was the following Monday, April 16. I did think about it, and finally decided that I might as well apply for it. If nothing else, it would force me to update my resume, and a job interview is always good experience. So, at the last possible moment, I turned in my application Monday, four days ago.

A total of eight people applied for the position, and I knew I had some stiff competition. Michael, our faculty adviser stopped me on Wednesday to tell me he was glad I applied, so I knew that raised my chances of getting the job. I was only really worried about three of the other applicants, but they were well qualified for the position. One of them was the Opinions Editor, and I had a feeling he'd get the job.

The interviews were conducted this morning, and mine was at 10:55 a.m. I wore my black "power suit," because hey, I might as well wear it when I can! (For you fashion people, I also wore a light blue shirt that goes well with the suit, to avoid wearing ALL black.) I was called into the interview room and seated at the head of a rather large table that was actually made up of four smaller tables pushed together. I was facing nine people, all with fancy water glasses and official-looking papers in front of them. Yes, this would certainly be good interview experience.

The interview was just under 15 minutes and consisted of scripted questions that were asked of all applicants. They didn't ask the dreaded "What are your best and worst qualities?" questions, but they did ask me about money issues. The Associate Vice President of Finance of the university wanted to know if I could operate a large budget. I had experience in high school, and my work as a bookkeeper at Staples paid off when I answered that question.

They asked more questions, and I made it through without making any grave errors. I'm not the type of person to rehearse a lot before an interview because I don't want to appear fake, and improvisation works better for me, anyway. I hadn't thought about or planned on including it, but I mentioned my basic philosophy about people: I like people until they do something to change my mind. They liked that.

The interview ended as quickly as it began, and then came the waiting part. I was only the third person to be interviewed, so I had at least three hours until the decision was made. I'm a very curious person, and I nearly went nuts while I was waiting. Around 1 p.m. I went over to the campus police station to get the Media Log, as I normally do several times a week. I have to manually copy down the events that happened on campus, and there were a LOT of things going on this week. At 1:30, the dispatcher poked her head out the window into the lobby and told me I had an urgent message from Michael. I raced upstairs to the nearest campus phone and dialed the number the dispatcher had written down. Yes, it was the faculty adviser of the newspaper.

I had gotten the position. I had been selected as Editor in Chief.

I was instantly in a state of both euphoria and shock, combined with some nervous worry about the job ahead of me. I got back to the newsroom as soon as I could, and was greeted with cheers of "Congratulations!" and several hugs. The faculty adviser then took me downstairs and bought me lunch and we talked about all the things I have to think about in the coming weeks. Then I went back upstairs and had a meeting with the current Editor in Chief and Managing Editor.

I, the person who hates to make decisions, will be forced to make a LOT of decisions in the coming weeks. I'm currently a bit overwhelmed, but I'm also very excited. I imagine I will get extremely stressed out at times, and I'm sure I'll occasionally want to strangle reporters and editors, but it's also going to be an amazing learning experience.

Ell"An office with a door and a nameplate are part of the package"myruh