The semester in review

This is my last IDS opinion column.\nThe previous sentence probably made some people on this campus very happy. I don't know if I'll claim to be pretentious enough to think some people will be saddened by my departure, but I consider myself fortunate every time someone passes me on the street and stops me to tell me how much they like what I have to say. When people recognize me in buses, restaurants and even in the restrooms, I always appreciate the kind words people have for me.\nA month ago, I even got an e-mail from a woman in Fiji. Yes, the little island nation in the South Pacific. She sent me a note telling me that she was surfing around U.S. political sites during the November elections, and randomly clicked on a column I wrote.\nShe then told me she proceeded to read my work for more than an hour, and decided to laud my writing. \nCompliments from abroad are sure to boost anyone's ego. Thanks to the World Wide Web, now anyone can feed my hunger for fame and fortune!\nOr not ...\nI also get e-mails from people who don't like what I have to say. Two years ago, I wrote a column condemning the Washington, D.C., sniper for his indiscriminate killing. I told him he needed to get a life and live it, so he wouldn't take others. I got a response to that column from someone who told me I had no right to say such things about the sniper because I didn't know him personally.\nAwww ... I didn't know crazed serial killers' feelings could get hurt. \nShortly after that, I was the recipient of an e-mail addressed to me from the entire IU French Department. Apparently, someone there didn't like what I had to say, and spread the vitriol around to all the cubicles in the department, until it finally manifested itself in e-mail form and appeared in my inbox. To me, the column in question wasn't really even about what they were angry at. Alas, there is no negotiating with an angry Francophile. Or 50 angry Francophiles.\nI often joked that in my time as a columnist, the only people I haven't somehow offended were the handicapped and the Dutch. I never meant to purposely ruffle any feathers, but people take their ideology very seriously, and any slight comment or disagreement about it and they will open the doors of hell to unleash fire and brimstone on your non-compliant ass.\nBut I thank you for disagreeing with me.\nI thank everyone who agreed with me, too. It showed me that people were actually reading my column and taking the time to think about it, which is all I could ask for.\nI also want to thank all my editors for reading, editing, and publishing my column. I tried to make your lives easy by writing good copy the first time, and I hope I succeeded.\nAnd to the IDS staff, I am not leaving yet, I have one semester left, but I'm glad to have had the opportunity to work with so many dynamic people. Working here has been the best kind of learning experience, and has wrought memories I will carry for the rest of my days.\nTo the campus at large, I am honored to have had the privilege to inform and entertain you. I hope I have done both to the best of my ability.\nGood day to you all.