No one at The Weekly really knows what I do.
And that’s OK.
At the start of my freshman year, I knew that I wanted to write for The Weekly. I had been obsessed with writing since as early as I could remember, and I knew that if I wanted to write at Muhlenberg, The Weekly was the place to do it. But a few Arts & Culture stories deep into that fall semester, I encountered a problem. I realized I wasn’t as passionate about writing as I thought I was. I was confused about why writing articles felt like a chore. I loved having written once I was finished, and that thrill of being published still never fades, but I wasn’t excited by the stories I was telling. I fell out of touch with The Weekly for much of the rest of my freshman year, and my passion for writing was indefinitely put on a pause.
Then came that dreadful at-home fall 2020 semester. I knew I needed more of a connection to the Muhlenberg community while I worked out of the subdued walls of my childhood bedroom. I decided to give The Weekly another shot. This time I joined the staff as assistant news editor—a concept that’s just laughable to me now. I have so much respect for our section editors. It’s a 24/7 job of coming up with ideas, assigning stories to writers and being accountable for a story if a writer falls through. And truthfully, I just wasn’t all that excited about Muhlenberg news enough to do that either. And though I quickly jumped ship from assistant news editor, this position taught me where my real passion lied: editing. A word-smith—not a storyteller; I quickly discovered that editing is what I was truly obsessed with.
Becoming the copy editor was like finally finding the missing piece to my Weekly puzzle—and my Muhlenberg one too. The semester I became copy editor was also our first semester back on campus since COVID. Every Tuesday night since that return, I have had the absolute nerdiest of pleasures playing with, and fixing up, the sentence structure and paragraph placement in our articles until it’s 3 A.M. and no one can read straight anymore (or 3:47 A.M. that one really bad night). And while I have loved every second of it, what has really kept me coming back to The Weekly every week and every semester is the people.
I’ll miss sitting in The Weekly office gasping at “Glee” cast drama and family vlogger scandals (all because I exposed myself in an OpEd that one time). I’ll miss delirious gossip at 2 A.M. under those bright office lights. I’ll miss defending the AP Style’s decision to exclude Oxford commas from journalistic work (even though, in truth, I disagree. But I am a rule follower.) If YOU want to bring the Oxford comma to The Muhlenberg Weekly—become the copy editor and make the change you wish to see in the world. Please. Thank you.
Thanks for a great ride, Weekly. I’ll miss you.
