Even though the Dining Hall seems to be most people’s first choice for work, I initially gravitated towards The Scarlet & Black because of the people. Something was to be said about how much I saw The S&B journalists … enjoyed their work despite the frustration, the hours and the will to live it seemed to drain out of people.
So, I chose The S&B a little impulsively and a little curiously, and I’ll admit upfront that I really regretted it at first. I’m unironically shyer than a snail, so tackling a Cribz home tour on my first assignment was beyond anxiety-inducing. To avoid burying the lede, I’ll admit that between covering that first Cribz, hanging out at karaoke and investigating campus crows, I’ve still managed to outlast my own expectations.
It took a long time to become comfortable interviewing people. It took even longer to learn to write good stories and even longer than that to feel incredibly confident doing either. I wasn’t always the perfect writer, perfect editor or the perfect journalist at any point in my time at Grinnell, and I think that when people talk about finding community, that’s something they overlook. It’s kind of impossible to be perfect as a student, but I always had someone in the newsroom to stay late with me, reread my features page an extra time or even hype up my ideas.
I don’t mean to sound cringy or sentimental, but I’ll shout out Sarah Evans `26, my beloved layout neighbor and devoted extra set of eyes. Shout-out to Sam Bates `24 for a lot of much-needed “water breaks” with me and for being such a vital part of the team along the way. Shout-out to all of the editors who have made me feel like a part of a bit of a mini-family and to all the writers who have lent your voices to the paper like absolute legends. It’s going to be hard to find bosses as encouraging as Nick El Hajj `24 and Eleanor Corbin `24 to take a chance on someone like me, who admittedly always felt underqualified for the editor position.
Even though I’ve changed a lot working for the paper — no, seriously, my first four stories are under a different name — I hope I can at least stay as someone who cherishes The S&B as the curious experience it was.
