#GoodbyeTNS - You're my greatest accident

As The National Student closes its doors at the end of the week, current Opinion Editor Ciaran Hanvey tells us what the platform means to him.

I would be lying if I said my involvement with TNS wasn’t somewhat of an accident.

I first heard of The National Student during Freshers of my first year of university when copies of the magazine were distributed around our student halls. Having read the magazine, and seeing the potential opportunities for writers, I thought I’d create a profile and for six months that was as far as I pursued TNS. 

It was not until April 2018 when my school friend Joe Rindl who happened to be Sports Assistant Editor at the time messaged. He had seen my profile and was wondering whether I could help him out with some articles, the first one being a piece on the state of English test cricket.

18 months later it is hard to believe I have written 32 articles and over 42,000 reads, as well as holding the positions of Assistant Editor of Opinion and Editor of Opinion for the past 10 months.

The National Student is my greatest accident and I will be sad to see it go.

I will be eternally grateful for the opportunities given my way by both Lucy and Camille; particularly accompanying Camille to the book launch of Geordie Stewart’s ‘In Search of Sisu’ as a follow up to an interview I completed. It was a wonderful and surreal affair being in Mayfair’s Calvary Club but one that I will never forget.

I would never have believed that by the age of 20 that I would have interviewed such amazing and inspiring figures like Geordie Stewart, Nick Hartwright or Dinesh Dhamija. Or that I would have been in charge of a section of a national publication.

The National Student has allowed me to grow as a writer and develop as a person in many ways. It has given me a platform to voice opinions; which I was previously fearful of doing. It has introduced me to so many great writers and most importantly people, who I will miss working with moving forward.

Goodbye TNS. Thank you for everything.