Ryan Struyk was the editor in chief of Chimes for the fall 2013 semester and the online editor for the 2012-13 school year. He is spending his spring semester in Washington, D.C. interning under the Chief Washington Correspondent at ABC News and will graduate in May.

I often tell people I’ve learned more outside of the classroom at Calvin than I have inside it. And Chimes is a place where a lot of that learning has happened.

I’ve learned that sometimes I write my best articles at 2 a.m. … but most of the time, I don’t.

I’ve learned that “I’m running the article anyway” often makes people change their minds about talking with you.

But I’ve learned that there is a time to push and a time to back down. And you often don’t know what the right decision is until you’ve already had to make one.

I’ve learned how to hold back tears in an interview.

I’ve learned that healthy disagreement is the most valuable thing you can have on a team.

But I’ve also learned that there’s no way to make everyone happy, so you might as well just do what you think is right.

To my staff this year: I am honored to have worked with you. I hope that I get the opportunity to work with such hard-working, inquisitive, thoughtful, professional, kind and dedicated people again in my life.

I am so proud to call each one of you my friends and I will miss bragging about you whenever anyone asks me about my job.

To our readers: Thank you for inviting our newspaper into your dorm rooms, your classrooms, your offices, your homes and, during these last three semesters, your laptops.

Thank you for caring so deeply about Calvin College and engaging the tough questions we’ve sought the answers to over the last three semesters.

Sincerely,

A person who has grown a lot and has a lot of growing to do.

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Jess Koster has been on the Chimes staff since fall of 2011, spending 2 1/2 years as sports editor or co-sports editor. This past fall she was managing editor of Chimes and self-appointed “team mom.” Jess is graduating this winter with a degree in accounting. She accepted a job at eAgile to be an accountant, which she starts full-time after interim.

When I came to Calvin, I never would have guessed that I would get a job where writing was a necessity. Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of writing. I can wholeheartedly say that nothing has changed in that aspect in the 3 1/2 years that I’ve been at Calvin.

The only reason why I really enjoyed being sports editor was the sports side of it. I love Calvin sports and have grown up watching the Knights. Many family members and friends have played here or play here now.

There have been some changes in Chimes while I was here. In 2012, we brought in one of my closest friends, Ryan Struyk, to be the new online editor and bring Chimes to the 21st century.

We added a Twitter account and a Facebook account that actually would be updated. I made the decision to add the sports Twitter to that mix and that took off. We also added the much more relevant local and religion sections, which have been major successes.

To the staff: I am going to miss the Wednesday night camaraderie and sugar highs with everyone; the friendships I have gained and hopefully will be lifelong; and the late night deep conversations that stretch my mind and make me learn more about how other people think.

To the readers: thank you for giving your opinions to the sports section. I have taken all of them into consideration. Thank you for following the sports Twitter feed, especially the live tweeting during major sporting events. You will not be disappointed by my co-editor and now successor.

Sincerely,

The avid sports fan and ardent hater of writing