I think it’s fitting to begin my senior column by acknowledging two people who witnessed the joys, challenges, and sacrifices of being in The Daily Pennsylvanian, even without experiencing it themselves. To my roommates Cindy and Kaily, thank you for understanding that there were days when we could only see each other through our Ring camera. Thank you for putting up with intense phone calls in the living room, my alarms ringing at all hours, and the countless excuses when I was running late from the office.
After over three years of fully embracing the DP as a defining part of my college experience, my final semester here has been a journey of navigating Penn without it. To not be sprinting across campus when breaking news hits or sneaking out of class to call our lawyer, but to be grabbing dinner with old friends, SABSing on Locust Walk, and going to bed before 11 p.m. As my roommates can attest, these so-called “normal” Penn activities had once been few and far between.
Still, if the past few months of freedom have taught me anything, it’s that being a “normal” Penn student is overrated.
Because at Penn, “normal” often means staying in your circle. It means caring about your classes, your friends, your coffee chats — and tuning out the parts of this campus that feel irrelevant to these personal and professional goals. After stepping back from the DP this semester, I realized how easy it is to live here without ever really noticing more.
The DP made sure I never had that problem. As the former executive editor on the 140th Board and photo editor on the 139th Board, I received the opportunity to deeply engage with our Penn community every day. I photographed hundreds of news and sporting events, helped cover campus unrest in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and met with countless readers and community members over the years. It was exhilarating to have a front-row seat to Penn’s unfiltered story — chaotic and overwhelming as it may have been.
Student journalism gave me that privilege — and with it, the responsibility to tell the truth, ask hard questions, and hold powerful institutions accountable, even when it meant looking critically at our own newsroom’s decisions. A free press isn’t just a campus accessory. It’s how a community stays honest with itself — how it pushes toward something better.
I may have dedicated my four years to telling someone else’s story, but I couldn’t have done so without a team that equally believed in this mission. To Kylie, Chase, Jonah, and Imran — thank you for being my earliest mentors at Penn, for sharing your time, experience, and wisdom when I didn’t know how to ask for it myself. To Molly, Jared, and Zain — thank you for bearing the weight of a newsroom with me and keeping me sane with Saxbys smoothies and Zesto Pizza and Grill calzones. And to the future leadership of the DP — thank you for carrying forth this powerful legacy and believing in something bigger than yourselves.
I also want to recognize the individuals outside our newsroom who helped me feel seen and heard when I thought no one else was paying attention: the roommates who kept me grounded, the professors who overlooked a late homework assignment, and the team at the Annenberg School’s Center for Media at Risk who gave me a platform to share my story. To every person who cared enough to read, question, or engage with our coverage — thank you. To our faithful newsletter subscribers, to the hate commenters on a controversial Under the Button post, and to the bystanders who checked in when police officers threatened our reporters — thank you. You remind me that our work has impact, that it is always for someone else. You show me that other people are as passionate and invested in this University, its good and bad.
While the DP gave me a close-knit community at Penn — one I’ll always be grateful for — it also taught me that the most meaningful stories are rarely your own. As graduation nears and I prepare to leave campus, I’ve come to realize that I don’t need to be in the newsroom to keep noticing and caring about the people and moments that make this place what it is.
So to anyone who still has years of Penn ahead of them: If you’ve never charged the Palestra floor after an upset over Villanova, witnessed a flash mob at the Perelman School of Medicine to celebrate Nobel Prize winners, or participated in something else outside your “normal,” I urge you to seek out these moments. Move beyond your own version of Penn and meet a different corner of our University. Engage deeply in your community and in discourse about it.
Penn has never been about just my experience. That’s exactly what made it worth loving.
ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL is a College and Engineering senior from Saratoga, Calif. studying communication and computer science. She previously served as executive editor on the 140th Board of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. She was also the photo editor and sports photo editor on the 139th and 138th boards, respectively. Her email is avazhae@sas.upenn.edu.
