People always say there’s no such thing as a stupid question. I can tell you right know that that isn’t true.

I know that, because I’m usually the one asking them.

I started writing for the Collegian my sophomore year, usually going down to the office once a week, sitting quietly on the couches, signing up to write a story and then leaving. I would slip in and out without anyone noticing, blending in with the crowd of other amateur writers.

But then, my junior year, I took a position as news assistant, and once a week I spent all night in the office, laying out the pages of the news section, completely responsible for what the front page would look like. And that kind of responsibility terrified me.

So on my third night on desk, still a beginner at that point, I asked if it would be OK to place a picture of Antonio’s Pizza next to a story about the same pizza joint. In my mind, everyone already knows what Antonio’s looks like, right? What’s the point of using a photo?

But to everyone else, this was probably one of the most hilariously obvious questions they had heard in a while. The more photos, the merrier – I didn’t even need to ask.  And thus, an inside joke was born, one that to this day, nearly two years later, people still make fun of me for.

And since then, the jokes have continued. I once spelled “Eledction” in a headline (a mistake that was caught before the paper went to print, luckily). I refer to our weekly Board of Editors meeting not as BOE, but as BEO. I misspelled President Barack Obama’s name in a quote credit (after someone had already written the correct spelling down for me.) There have been so many slip-ups, that a Twitter account has been made to document them all.

But I’m not here to rant about all the mistakes I’ve made or point fingers at anyone who has made jokes at my expense in the past. Because I love every single person at the Collegian who has ever poked fun at me, and I know that if they ever went too far and truly hurt my feelings, they would stop the jokes in a heartbeat. But here’s the truth – I’m glad I’ve made every single one of those mistakes.

No one is free from slip ups or screw ups. That’s how life is – no matter how much you want to deny it, you are going to make stupid mistakes. But when faced with those mistakes head on, there’s two ways you can deal with it – you can let them eat you alive, or you can laugh at them.

After one semester as a news assistant, I left the Collegian to study abroad in Paris, France. I signed up for a direct enrollment program, where instead of enjoying the security of taking classes with other international students, I was immersed into the French language and culture, mainly taking classes with actual college-level French students. There was little English, no easy courses and no special treatment.

Instead, there were times when I was abroad that I didn’t want to be there. I was told I would have to do oral presentations in French in front of native speakers, the thought of doing that alone making me panic. My grammar was corrected constantly by people who knew the language better than I ever would. I sometimes clammed up just trying to pay for a drink or a snack at a convenience store, knowing that if I opened my mouth, my minimal vocabulary and blatant American accent would shine through.

But what got me through those months, nearly 3,500 miles away, was the Collegian. I received emails from the staff on Sunday nights, keeping me posted on the little things – when someone had tripped in the office, when a special edition of the paper was coming out or when the crew just wanted to say ‘hi.’

I remember Skyping the office on production nights, until 4 a.m. my time, and never growing tired. I never stopped loving seeing the energy of these people. I never stopped loving their humor, their dedication and their smiles.

And I learned to embody that kind of spirit.

In my last few months in France, every mistake I made was accompanied by a smile. At the end of a 20-minute oral presentation, entirely in French, my professor told me after class I had a very prominent American accent that needed to be corrected. Usually, that kind of remark would send me in a frenzy of panic. What could I have done better? Why didn’t I recite my presentation more? How much of an embarrassment did I make of myself up there?

But instead, I just smiled and nodded. I left the classroom and remembered laughing with my friends about it. Of course I had an American accent, I’m American, nothing to do about that. Just move on.

So here’s the moral of the story, my four years of college and three years at the Collegian wrapped up into a single sentence: make mistakes and learn to laugh at them. The people at the Collegian have never missed an opportunity to laugh at a silly mistake, and I’ve learned to love that about all of them.

When I graduate, I’ll be moving to South Carolina to teach special education as part of Teach for America. Before my years at the Collegian, the thought of this would have terrified me. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t still scared, but right now, I’m much more excited. I’m excited to do something new, even  though I know it won’t be easy and I know there will be plenty of times where I mess up. But I look forward to it, so I can laugh at my mistakes, learn from them and grow from them. My mistakes have made me a stronger person, and I have the Collegian to thank for that.

Life is full of times where you are going to mess up, screw up or ask that stupid question everyone already knows the answer to. Learn to love those moments. Learn to laugh and smile at your flaws, because if you don’t, they will just weigh you down.

Jaclyn Bryson was an assistant news editor and copy editor and can be followed on Twitter @wowjaclyn.