Hey guys, it’s Alex. This year will be Weather Vane’s 87th year in production. As we all know, one human year is equal to six Weather Vane years. This has two relevant implications for this editorial. First, it means Brooke and I have cumulatively experienced 12 years of stress during our tenures so far. Second, the Weather Vane is in its pubescent years. This presents an interesting phase of growing pains for the paper. We are in a season of change, challenge, and growth. Where a human might gain height, hair, and mood swings, the Weather Vane has gained adversaries, financial responsibilities, and freshman writers. All good things! 

It is not only a time of change for the Weather Vane. It might be a symptom of my senior status, but it seems that change is upon us all. Deeply held values of mine are being challenged in ways I never anticipated. My friends and I are having to question if the subjects we have studied for the past three years are really what we want to do. Then we have to ask ourselves how difficult it would be to switch majors at this point (hard). I even tried growing a mustache. It was awful.

People often say that change is difficult to navigate but worthwhile. I disagree. Sometimes change is easy but sucks. The change from a traditional search engine to one with AI overview took zero effort on my part, and it made my search for information worse in every regard. 

Seamless transition to Brooke. If you have ever tried to bake a cake from your grandma’s faded recipe card, you’ll have a good idea what it’s like to start a new semester at the Weather Vane. Without our metaphorical grandmothers around to interpret, figuring out if that 5-year-old Google Doc calls for one teaspoon or one tablespoon of News & Feature can be tricky. Nevertheless! If you are reading this, that means we managed to produce our first issue despite the transitional difficulties and convoluted metaphors. 

Now, you might be wondering: how did I end up in this situation? After a year writing and copy-editing for the Weather Vane, I decided to try out Editing-in-Chiefing. I am a senior, soon to be one of EMU’s last Writing Studies graduates. Although the major is now gone, there remain a few different opportunities for student writers on campus (including this paper and the literary journal, The Phoenix). To anyone who has interest in writing/being published/reading, my advice is: do it! The only way to guarantee the future of these publications is to continue writing and showing interest. Your voice is power, and as President Dycus told us at the beginning of the semester, power is a verb.

Thank you for picking up this issue of the Weather Vane, and for making it at least to the editorial. We hope to see you again this semester!