By Sarah Sanchez
A valued member of our staff is leaving us to pursue other dreams. Sadly, it is our Editor-In-Chief, Kimberley, who is leaving us. We’ve had great people come and go, but when an employee leaves we usually just wish them good luck and find a replacement to fill the vacant position. But as I sat in the office and cried (yes, cried) when she informed us she was leaving, I realized that in 17 years I had never been brought to tears when an employee was leaving. But Kimberley isn’t a normal employee.

Kimberley is an amazing writer, with the super power of catching punctuation errors with the weapon of a red pen. She was overly remarkable at her job; in addition to all the other tasks she was given. Even if she was busy, she would always make time to proofread anything with writing on it. She also revamped our entire newspaper, folders, documents, and so much more.

But besides being an awesome employee, she is an even better person both inside and out. She has a heart of gold, a passion for baking, and weak spot for baby pictures (she won’t admit it so don’t bother asking). But the things I love most about her are her kindness and humility.  She let me borrow books, baked me brownies, made me dinner, and not once did she brag about how amazing she was (even though she was beyond amazing).

If that’s not enough, she asked us not to throw a going away party as she planned to go quietly. Since the human race is known for being prideful and selfish, I admired her for suggesting that. But yes, we did throw a party anyway, because she deserved one!

The things I will miss most about Kimberley are her wittiness, her brilliant writing, her humor, her great advice, her encouragement, her discipline as she passed up cake, her calling me her “favorite,” and her random Disney jokes that were always hilarious.

Yes, we will find another person to fill Kimberley’s Editor position, and they will probably be a great employee. But Kimberley, as both an employee and as a person, is the definition of irreplaceable. And you can’t replace the irreplaceable Editor-In-Chief!

Good luck, Kimberley! We love you and you will be deeply missed.