I have a hard time reckoning with the end of something before it has actually ended. So, the fact that a few days after writing this, I’ll be attending my last layout for The Hofstra Chronicle – and that this is the last article I’ll write for this publication – is something I doubt I’ll fully reckon with until it happens.
I wrote my first article, “Laundry is not that hard … right?” in a fit of unbridled rage at the state of my dorm’s laundry room. What I did not realize, writing what bordered on a manifesto about laundry, was that the Chronicle would dominate my life for three years and be the defining piece of my college experience. Never once in writing that article did I think that I would work my way up to editor, that I would learn so much from a failed run to be editor-in-chief and that I would place so much emotional stock into a college newspaper. But, here we are.
The Chronicle is among the most unique organizations on Hofstra University’s campus. The logistical nightmare of getting any paper to print is enough to make anybody who knows about it wish they didn’t.
Six near-independently run sections brainstorm, write and edit anywhere from four to six articles each week. Those sections’ editors send those articles to our copyeditors who make changes and send them back to the editors. After that, editors put the articles into our layouts and our copy editors look once again. And finally, our managing editor gives it a last look before sending it off to print.
It is a miracle that this paper hits stands as often and as polished as it does, and to be a part of that miracle hits harder than anything else I’ve done on campus. I’m proud to have been a writer, I’m proud to have been an editor and I’m proud to be passing the torch to such a talented group of individuals. Every person working on this paper at every level contributes to a shared experience that is worth far more than anything I’m talented enough to put into words.
A few months ago, my aunt asked me what my favorite Hofstra memory is – what single experience could encapsulate my four years here. I told her that that experience was, of course, losing my run for editor-in-chief.
Though I did not come out victorious (hell, I wasn’t even close to winning), that election and the months of my life leading up to it forced me to grow at a rate far faster than I ever had before. It was a culmination of months of work, dozens of meetings and so much joy and pain. It forced me to gain an intimate understanding of this paper and the people in it, and it brought me on a journey throughout this organization.
Without the fire and curiosity I developed throughout the campaign, I would never have been brave enough to push myself to my limit. I never would have written for News, never would have contributed to Multimedia and never would have stepped out of my comfort zone to write for Sports. I built relationships in this paper I would never have had if I decided to remain complicit and not even try, and I reckoned with parts of myself I never would have engaged with otherwise.
Though the demands of my senior year – an internship, a few on-campus jobs, other clubs and my thesis – have pulled me away from being as involved with the Chronicle as I once was, the Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center Room 203 will always be my second home.
And to anybody lucky enough to contribute to this paper – or even to lose an election for leadership of this paper – congratulations, and enjoy driving yourself crazy on Adobe InDesign, hoping you never have to touch the program again but walking away wishing you could do it just one more time.
