Millie Peck, Opinions Editor

I never expected to work for the paper. Writing unbiased factual stories couldn’t have appealed to me less, but the idea of getting paid to write did. Plus, this kid Abraham Teuber `22 kept asking me these really strange polls that he called a “Snedge” for the paper — he seemed pretty cool and the polls made me chuckle, so I applied.

I found the work to be challenging and stressful, but also invigorating. Often, academia is so highbrow — reading and writing about what other people have written and said. Getting to talk to people around campus and in the community, to tell real and tangible stories, felt special and urgent.

My dear friend Alanis Gonzalez `22 asked me to write as a guest for her column, Mental Musings. I had so much fun writing it and thus began my infatuation with the opinions section. I am grateful for all the time I spent writing for so many of the sections because I learned what it means to write in a journalistic style, how to conduct interviews and shape a story, but in the end, I learned I’m a bit of a narcissist and have trouble keeping my thoughts to myself. So I applied for the Opinions Editor position and never looked back.

We run the paper to tell hard-hitting news stories, but the reality is that many people pick it up to do the mini crossword or read the Sage & Blunt advice column. But more importantly, the opinions section is the way that we highlight the voices of people outside of the S&B staff. The ability to have your work published should not be gatekept by people with journalistic prowess. My favorite pieces to edit were for people who did not have much experience writing but had something important to say. I hope people continue to utilize this section as a platform to create change and start important conversations.

I am truly in awe of everyone on this staff, the quality of work that we produce astounds me and sometimes it scares me how passionate some of my coworkers are about the craft of journalism. Everyone cares deeply about telling the stories that need to be told and doing our community justice. We don’t always get it right, but I am so impressed by everyone’s ability to stay humble, own their mistakes and learn and grow from the process. It takes a special kind of person to do this work.

I will deeply miss closing out an eight-hour shift at midnight with Nadia Langley `23 reading my page and catching the inevitable copy mistakes on the Snedge and my coffee dates with my number one editor Allison Moore `24. I will forever treasure the beautiful graphic Hannah Agpoon `22 designed for my Mental Musings column that somehow captured my essence. And I owe a special thanks to Alanis Gonzalez for passing along her column to me, as well as Abraham Tueber for being my first cheerleader in the field and encouraging me to take on the ambitious first-person investigative piece about eating disorders that changed my life.

I don’t know if people can understand, from the outside, the attention to detail in this publication and the sheer amount of time it takes to get a piece to print. I certainly didn’t, and it has made me so grateful to all the people who do take the time to write about all the stories that need to be told.