My six weeks as news editor and production manager of The Ryersonian finished Wednesday. We went out to the pub as a group after deadline on Tuesday night and our professor paid for the food and drinks.

It’s incredible what you don’t know about people, especially authority figures, until you share a pitcher of beer with them.

And after we delivered the last newspapers around campus on Wednesday morning as a group, the five of us went for breakfast at a greasy spoon nearby.

I’ve hated working in groups my entire academic career. At least one person (usually me) is taken advantage of and gets stuck with most, if not all, of the work once the others realize he or she will work hard enough to get a good mark whether they help or not. I’ve had dozens of terrible group experiences.

But this group was incredible and we knew it would be before we even started working together.

Sure, it was stressful sometimes and we were short with each other once in a while as the 5 p.m. deadline crept up every Tuesday, but we tried not to take ourselves too seriously while at the same time giving one another the mutual respect we all deserved.

After spending at least five or six days a week with these people, I now feel naked without them. Three of the others are staying in Toronto for their internships, like me, but my closest friend left for Vancouver on Saturday morning.

We became even closer while on the masthead and it feels strange that I can’t call her up right now to chat about something, or nothing. We lived a few blocks away from each other and we saw or spoke to each other almost every day.

I did her highlights in the bathroom of her boyfriend’s apartment (she moved out of hers during Reading Week) and we tried to chat like normal. We acted like it wasn’t a big deal that we wouldn’t see each other for the next two months.

The goodbye was sad and I rushed it so I wouldn’t cry. I sent her a text message later to tell her how much I would miss her, but that I hoped she had a great experience. (How Gen Y am I?)

I’ve spent the days since then working on the new project I mentioned in my last post. We officially launched it today.

The TalentEgg Career Incubator is an online career magazine for Canadian post-secondary students and recent graduates, and an extension of the main TalentEgg.ca website. I’m the editor.

I’m still working on putting together a larger writing team (if anyone is interested in writing for us, please let me know) and it’s a bit of a work in progress, but we’re so excited about it and so looking forward to turning it into an invaluable resource for Canadian students and recent graduates, especially considering the current economic climate.

I’m having so much fun being part of the TalentEgg team again and working with the really bright, ambitious students and recent grads who have volunteered to contribute content. Lauren and I are also working on putting together some fun (but also purposeful) group activities for the team once it grows a bit.

And, of course, my personal life is extremely tumultuous at the moment as well. I won’t go into details, but my life will be probably changing a lot very soon. It’s sad, but it’s something which needs to be done if I’m going to start my life on the right foot.

I’m also starting my internship at the National Post tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. The editor I’m working with told me to show up with “ideas and enthusiasm,” and to be honest, I’m a little short on both at the moment. I’m so nervous and I’m still not sure if it was the right choice for me, but it’s too late to go back now. I just hope I can do an amazing job there and leave feeling good about my work.

I suppose I’m just a worry wart. I love change when it comes, but until it actually arrives and I’m certain about what’s happening, all I can do is worry, worry and worry some more.

Ryerson University students crowded anywhere there was a television, including the Ram In the Rye (pictured) to watch Barack Obama become the 44th president of the United States on Jan. 20.Ryerson University students anywhere there was a television, including the Ram In the Rye, to watch Barack Obama become the 44th president of the United States on Jan. 20.

As we come down from our collective high after watching Barack Obama become the 44th president of the United States yesterday, we can’t help but believe the world is changed for the better somehow.

It’s difficult to say exactly what the change is, how it happened or why it’s good, but Obama represents the kind of change we’ve been waiting for.

After all, only two days ago it seemed like George W. Bush had always been the president of the United States — or at least since before most current university students were conscious of American politics.

Eight years ago, when Bush was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2001, Canada’s current undergraduate student population was somewhere between playing outside during recess at elementary school and working their first part-time job during high school.

Our generation’s fascination with the characters and decisions of the American government undoubtedly began Sept. 11, 2001.

The pictures and videos from that morning have been etched onto our memories forever and it seems as though the constant barrage of media hasn’t stopped since.

Thanks to Bush, we’ve known how terrifying, dramatic and sometimes hilarious American politics can become.

None of us will ever forget the “War on Terror,” “Shock and Awe,” or Bush’s frequent slips of the tongue.

For the past eight years we’ve felt superior to our American neighbours because although Canada’s political leaders weren’t perfect, at least they never uttered the word “misunderestimation” in public.

But that doesn’t mean we liked or were actually interested in any of Canada’s most recent prime ministers.

None of them have captured the attention of Canada’s youth because they didn’t speak to our issues or use the same tools of communication we use.

But when Obama came into the picture Canadians, young Canadians especially, developed a serious case of Obama envy.

Obama’s was the first campaign that took advantage of the power of the Internet.

It included aggressive mini-campaigns on social networks such as MySpace, YouTube and Facebook, and hundreds of thousands of mostly young people “tweeted” about Obama on Twitter every day.

Combined with the mainstream news updates in newspapers and on television and radio, it was a campaign without borders and Obama won Canadians over as much as he did Americans.

The fourth floor of the Ryerson library as also packed with students, staff and faculty watching the inauguration on flatscreen TVs.

As we cast our ballots in the latest federal election on Oct. 14 (if we cast them at all), many of us probably would have gladly swapped our vote for one in the American election a few weeks later just to help Obama reach the White House.

It turned out he didn’t need our help, so we continued to watch from across the border with growing admiration.

And although Canadians are worried Obama will throw out the North American Free Trade Agreement, fail to support Canadian troops in Afghanistan and, most importantly, be unable to fix the United States’ failed economy, it’s no secret that we love and trust Obama.

In a recent survey done for the CBC, more than 80 per cent of Canadians said they approve of Obama’s performance so far and almost half the country feels disappointed with our leadership options in comparison with Obama’s style and charisma.

Young Canadians are even more dissatisfied with our leaders than the general population. It’s no surprise, considering we’ve never had a youthful, charming celebrity leader of our own.

The closest Canada has come was Pierre Trudeau, when he captured the attention of our parents’ generation in the late 1960s and early ’70s with Trudeaumania.

While there are rumours of Justin Trudeau following in his father’s footsteps one day, it’s probably still a long way away.

So until we get a young, magnetic leader of our own – no matter what the colour of his or her skin is – Canada’s youth will continue to idolize Obama and be hopeful for the change he represents in our society.

We don’t know what those changes will be yet, but so far he’s done a fine job getting North American youth interested in politics again and that bodes very well for our future.