“Syllabus Week” is over. The first two editions of the paper have been sent to the printers and Beyonce caused a power outage. The first week of a semester can be stressful, add in a campus publication, a flurry of meetings and starting the plans for a 56-page edition of said publication; well you’ve got a mess.
A wonderful, hot mess. Today the office was stressful, but you know, that’s how it goes in student media sometimes. You have to roll with the punches, or in my case the pronoun-antecedent non-agreements and the Oxford commas.
It comes with the territory. I know what I’m getting into every week. Tuesdays at 5 p.m. I’m in Meredith Hall 124 for the night. I bring my supper. I make a pot of coffee and just wait. I wait for the pages to come in. The questions to be asked and the pens to be thrown at my desk (my telltale sign of frustration). As frustrating as it can be I wouldn’t trade my time in that office for the world. The friendships I’ve made over the past three years and the bonds I’m creating are consistently surprising. The people you meet in student media are some of the nicest, most sarcastic and real people you’ll meet during your college career.
I’m thankful for the people I have in my newsroom. They’re the ones who make fun of me for having a red pen explode on me and get all over my hand. They’re the ones who make the late nights worth it.
With my semester jam-packed with 16 credits and the pending Relays Edition induced stress binge I couldn’t be more thankful for my fellow editors and reporters.
