Letter from the Editor: struggled, and survived

This year started with an Advocate staff with no more people than were in the Spice Girls. Then, I unexpectedly was thrust into the editor- in-chief position.

Quite honestly, I don’t know how we did it, the last 30 issues. Without the help of our faculty advisers; my associate editor; our head editor from two years ago, and last year’s chief (thanks, Adam), we probably would’ve nosedived into the ground.

Mt. Hood faculty and staff had a hand in the paper this year by providing articles, ideas, and interview sources for our different sections, so, thank you, to those who took the time to shoot us an email and notify us of an event or occurrence. There were times when we re-created a “Features” page, where we published students’ work from a Writing 121 class taught by Holly DeGrow. The articles were based off an assignment called “This I Believe” – an idea that originated with radio broadcaster Edward R. Murrow in the 1950s.

I admit, this year didn’t go as planned – actually, none of it was planned and we ended up going with the flow most of the time. It was with the perseverance of each Advocate staff member that we were able to float above water.

I realized that I did my best organizing the newbies that somehow joined and became dedicated with their interest in writing and journalism. Each had their own style, preference and personality that they brought to the table and it encouraged us to come together to work hard on a mutual project. Most of our editorial staff was comprised of first-year students without a background in journalism, but their time and effort put into the paper has given each of us valuable experience we can apply to our future.

Working under pressure, I had a track record of not swearing by saying random uncomfortable and weird things, instead. The environment was fun on a regular basis and stress levels were kept down with music, jokes and laughter.

Honestly, instead of building a “workforce” that I wanted, I think we created a family, one we can all hang out and talk to in the future.

Advocate Staff