My last USA TODAY College article as summer correspondent is a memorial piece on Robin Williams.
Many college-aged students, including myself, grew up watching and learning from many of Williams' films. As expressed in a previous blog post, he and his movies meant a lot to me and I am deeply saddened by his death.
Because of this, the process of working on this article was bittersweet.
On one hand, it was incredibly saddening because in some sense, writing about his death just made it much more real for me, although the news hasn't completely sunk in yet. I personally comprehend and feel things much more strongly when I write about them, and this was no exception.
But even though it was difficult in that sense, I found the process to be quite therapeutic.
I listened to some of my peers explain in detail why Robin Williams is so important to them and why they believe he'll be missed by our generation. They shared stories about what his films mean to them and provided me with some of their insights on depression and mental illness.
Listening to their stories and fusing them into this memorial piece was a great pleasure for me. Helping others share their stories is one of my favorite parts of journalism.
Writing this gave me a bit of closure and I hope others who read this will be able to smile at the celebration of the lessons he taught millions of people around the world.
Let us continue to remember Williams for all he taught us while respectfully remembering that suicide and depression are serious and should be talked about.
You can read my Robin Williams memorial piece here.
You can read the rest of my USA Today College articles at my author link here.
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