Each generation has their share of thoughtful, provocative and eloquent voices. Said voices bring about ideas on par with the Enlightenment, shed light on social issues like the Muckrakers and invest in charitable givings in ways that would shame even Oprah.
Well, buckle up, buttercups. Because I am not one of those voices.
But I can say this: I called it. At the beginning of the year, I declared in this same paper that this semester would suck. The unfortunate thing is that it more than sucked, but apparently I’m not allowed to swear in a university newspaper.
Why did this semester suck? Maybe we all just got tired of professors preaching to rooms of 98.9 percent white kids about the importance of linguistic diversity and explaining why not every hijab-wearer is a terrorist.
Or maybe it has something to do with tuition continuously increasing, our university president’s salary also increasing and student services like counseling, library hours and disability being cut.
Or maybe it’s because we were banned from certain on campus jobs because we dared say something bad about SVSU, or we quit another job because the director justified a borderline racist hiring policy by saying that hiring more black kids would not be representative of the Saginaw community.
Or maybe it’s because we’ve wrote our weight in papers this semester, and that’s really saying something because we’ve also ate a dumpster’s worth of Little Debbie snack cakes and Panda Express.
Yeah, OK, maybe that’s just me. But still, I have yet to find one person this semester who said, “Gee whiz, what a great semester this has been.” If this is you, dear reader, keep it to yourself. No one wants to hear about your happiness while the rest of us are having a pity party.
And about being an editor for this here paper. What a mess these last two months have been. I’ve met with many of our reporters, and boy, were there some interesting conversations.
There’s been a reoccurring issue that has been my reoccurring nightmare since I first became a reporter. Like any company, SVSU has some baggage.
And no one is willing to talk about that baggage. Let me be clear. People will talk off the record – meaning when they talk to reporters, it’s essentially only a cathartic experience for them because they want to talk, but they don’t want to face the repercussions of having their name published with their words.
But there’s more. Dear reader, it’s been a rough semester. There’s so much more to say, but what’s the point? Another cathartic experience?
I understand that The Valley Vanguard is not a Detroit Free Press or Boston Globe. I can’t speak for all of the Vanguard, but I really truly doubt that anyone here is under the impression that we can win a Pulitzer off our stories.
But we’re still a newspaper. We report the news. And as you will hear in the editing room every Sunday morning (let’s just say if this were a drinking game, you’d get drunk in like three minutes), “Newspaper is hard.”
Well, this entire semester has been hard. If the fact that not all of my classes have posted textbooks for next semester but I already will need to buy over 20 novels and textbooks is any sign of things to come, I doubt next semester will be much better.
And I know that “How I Met Your Mother” has taught us all that New Year’s is the most disappointing of all holidays because it promises a new beginning just because the clock strikes midnight, but I hope the time for cathartic experiences are over, and the time for actually doing something to help ourselves (yours truly included) is finally here.
While I’m doubtful, I still have to hope that next semester will be better.
Because the Fall 2017 semester sucked and can read between the lines (again, not what I want to write).
And just one last piece of advice: While you’re stress-eating during finals week, try the Zebra Cakes. They’re delicious.
