A friend of mine once said that the best part of being a manager was firing the employees. I cannot say I agree, I felt a great sympathy for Nicolette, my editor, I don’t feel she enjoyed breaking the news to me, anymore than I enjoyed receiving it. Over the phone, Nicolette explained to me that, due to the VHL-WUR demerge, Resource would no longer be writing about VHL. Hence, a VHL international columnist was rather illogical. In other words, I was out. My initial reaction was a, genuine, profound sadness. With a smile, I sit here remembering the first time I met the Resource team in the Actio building. Being a magnet of awkward situations, I had to try and justify why only one of my hands had painted nails and why my profile picture on Facebook consisted of me looking like a gangster at a urinal. I have nothing but good words for the Resource. I’ll be forever thankful for the opportunity offered to me, because it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. Whoever takes over my job should feel very lucky, and I hope they enjoy it as much as I have. I must admit though, I feel completely let down by the people responsible for my education, both VHL and WUR management have once again disappointed me. Their arrogance continues to baffle me. Were all those promises made back in June, to my fellow students and I, about continuous cooperation and ‘nothing changing’, just a façade? Hiding the ugly truth that neither side seems to be capable of negotiating their way out of a paper bag. We have now lost Resource. Will we lose our Sports, Housing and University Building rights too? Is this the beginning of the end or simply a logical step in a happy, cooperative, demerge? So many unanswered questions… Sometimes, one can only hope for the best and accept that agreements cannot always be maintained. I have no intention of this being the end of my writing career. To conclude, I will say simply the following, I have thoroughly enjoyed writing for you all and I hope you have enjoyed sharing my International Student life. Goodbye, and thank you. Emma
The Final Goodbye
Incredibly sad as it is to say, this will be my last column.
