By Kristen Griffith, The Whetstone

I walked into Whetstone adviser Professor Victor Greto’s office on the fourth floor during my second freshman semester at Wesley. Not sure what he would say, I fiddled with my hands, clenched and unclenched my teeth and prepared for another harsh critique of the latest Whetstone.

Instead, he said, “I want you to be Editor-in-Chief of The Whetstone next semester.”

It was the toughest job I ever had, yet three years and 24 issues later, I can confidently say it was the best job I ever had.

Fall semester sophomore year, I released my first Whetstone issue and had them on display during the club and organization fair in the South Plaza. It was a thin 4-pager with my stories on the front, one of them about a local gun shooting.

I was proud of my accomplishments, especially since it took a couple of freak-outs about the design and a few editing sessions with Greto to finish. My proud moment was cut short after a couple of students approached the table.

“Wow, this is the shortest Whetstone I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” a student said as she wiggled the flimsy 4-pager.

I continued to smile, made sure my eyes didn’t roll and answered their questions about who I was and my position on the paper.

“Oh, you’re the person Greto gave the job to that no one else wanted,” another student said.

Screw you.

However, another person did want this job: Brittany Wilson.

The person who braced through the backlash with me when people disagreed with our stories. The person who dozed off with me at 3 a.m. in The Whetstone office the night before the paper came out. The person whose writing I admired and aspired to match. And the person who I now call my best friend.

Together, we tackled stories I would not have thought I was capable of three years ago.

The time we spent on each issue and the criticism we dealt with from these stories only made us stronger journalists.

We were bold. We were brave. We were consistent.

But we were pushed to obtain these characteristics; actually, we were shoved.

If anyone is looking for a person to scowl at you when your writing is weak, cuss at you for missing a deadline, motivate you to be the best in whatever you’re doing or always having your back, head to room 415 on the fourth floor.

I advise everyone to find someone like Professor Greto. I doubt you’ll find anyone like him – unless you know someone who asks you, “Where’s the paper?” every day.

He’s not just an adviser – he’s one of the few relationships I made here that I can confidently say will continue well after graduation.

I credit him for the writing skills I have obtained, the knowledge I have about journalism and the two graduate schools I’ve been admitted to.

The Whetstone, Brittany and Professor Greto contributed to the passion I found for journalism and my overall positive experience at Wesley.

This was the toughest job I ever had, but the best job I ever had because of the things I learned, the stories I’ve written and the people I worked with.