As mentioned two editorials ago, my sister got married! It was beautiful, and everything went exactly as planned. As the maid of honor, I had to rearrange my schedule to make it to every event and be present. I skipped a quiz, a lab, two classes, numerous homework assignments, and the entirety of Stute production. I prepared everyone as much as I could and referred everyone to Tianna. Tianna and Eiliyah submitted the files that week instead of me, and I was absolutely offline.
I received the most amount of Slack messages from writers, Minorboard, and E-board that I have ever seen. Thankfully, very few needed my immediate attention. It was interesting to say the least. Quite a few family members have photos of me, post-haldi, with my laptop out, working on the newspaper as my sister got her wedding mehndi (henna) done. I felt ridiculous with my laptop in hand and had no way of properly explaining that if I didn’t lay out the news page or read every article in the drive, there was nobody else who could do it.
My sister, being my sister, laughed about it and loved having me sit with her, even if I was working. Having finished my work that Thursday, the real wedding festivities began, and I was officially offline. I didn’t have my Apple Watch or phone with me for three days, and had no idea what time it was whenever someone asked. Looking back on it, that was the best decision that I made. I spent every moment watching, crying, and laughing during the ceremonies and reception. The Stute came out that Friday, and I was watching my best friend get married with zero interruptions.
Let me just say, coming back to my emails and messages was a slap back to reality. I was immediately hit with all the readings, homework, exams, quizzes, lab notebooks, and Stute work I had to accomplish. I definitely didn’t love coming back to school and jumping right into the madness.
Now that I am free-ish, I am looking back on my time away. Last Editorial, I talked about my fear of the newspaper not coming out on a week it is scheduled to, but watching my team work together behind the scenes, without me, has slowly diminished that fear. Yes, I still received an ungodly amount of Slack messages, but that will never change as long as I am in this position. Like I mentioned previously, there were no pressing questions, and I was left to enjoy my time away.
I know most of my editorials have been me saying, “I am so grateful for my E-board,” but I am! It is so true! They made the newspaper, and now I have come back feeling like there is a slight weight lifted off my shoulders.
The newspaper will always come out when it needs to, because the entire Stute production team cares more than anyone could imagine. We signed up for this, and we love it! The stress will always be there, but somehow I feel a bit more comforted knowing that we are all in this together.
