Zachary Levine: Giving my first editor her due

After working for 15 of them, I should know by now:

What makes a good editor?

They should come up with the best story ideas. They should be supportive of the good writing, critical of the bad. They should push me when I should be working harder, but more importantly, they should tell me to take a breath when I'm in a little too deep.

And they should always correct you when you use a plural like "they" to replace of a singular like "editor."

With those qualifications considered, my last column goes out to my editor who has gotten the least recognition but deserves the most.

My mother, Lori Levine.

Before I learned how to conduct an interview or write a recap, my editor taught me always to say thank you. And while she hasn't always gotten the first thanks, my mother does today, like she's always deserved.

The next goes out to you, the readers. We've had an interesting relationship over the last four years.

Some of you were misguided enough to call me a racist or a sexist.

Some of you oversensitive enough to say that something I wrote was insulting to your family.

And some of you had low enough standards that you actually told me I was a good writer.

While I hope to get much more fan mail and hate mail down the road in my career, I'll miss our interaction.

I've always believed that Penn athletics fans, minus the few exceptions whose vocabulary starts and ends with "sucks," are some of the most sophisticated out there, and I've enjoyed the dialogue.

The next thank you goes to a guy whom I only saw once, whose name may have been Brett or Brent. All I know is that he cut me at club volleyball tryouts, and I had to look for a different extracurricular activity.

I can't imagine what would have happened if Brett/Brent had an eye for unathletic lefty hitters. I might have had to get a real job next year.

Thanks also go out to my coworkers at The Daily, who have been some of the best friends I'll ever have.

While I learned a lot in my four years as a math major, I've learned more from "the guys."

You taught me that once you've started walking east, you can't walk west again.

You taught me that there is some truth to the idea that to win the election, you only have to win New Hampshire.

And, as evidenced by the last two, you've taught me that inside jokes are still quite acceptable in college.

Finally, my last thank you goes to The Daily herself, which has gotten me through everything in the last four years.

Other than what we came here for, getting an education and turning that into a career, I concentrated most of my effort on just three measurable goals.

One was to become executive editor of this newspaper, one was to run a four-hour marathon, and the other was to find a girlfriend.

Anyone who has read the pages of the newspaper closely knows that I failed in the first two.

And anyone who has looked at the mug shot atop this column the 50 or so times that it ran knows that I failed in the third.

But The Daily gave me an outlet from failure. When I wasn't elected editor, I was still welcomed back in with open arms. When I blew it in the marathon, The Daily gave me the opportunity to transform a negative into a message.

And when I spent my nights alone, I was never really alone. Thanks to the newspaper, I always had a place to go and the best group of friends to enjoy the time together.

So while I failed in each of my largest goals outside of the classroom, I was never a failure.

And even if I had failed in these goals, I always had an editor who told me I was a success.

Zachary Levine is a 2007 College graduate and is former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is zlevine@sas.upenn.edu.

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