The newsroom is a hard place to leave, but an even harder place to return to. Bringing together 14 pages of broadsheet each week is exhausting, and as we fast approach our final hours working on a paper that still reads CXXXVI, we find ourselves reflecting on why we joined The Phillipian in the first place. We wonder who, other than ourselves, is going to care if our articles are kerned to -30, if our headlines are centered, if our refer boxes are Andover Blue—C=75, M=44, Y=0, K=0.
We knew that The Phillipian was our first love, but it wasn’t until the last months of our tenure that we found out why. Our reasons still vary; for some it might be leading a News writers’ meeting, or crafting a Commentary article or copying spelling errors and Oxford commas. But ultimately, it is the family of 30 down in the basement of Morse that has kept each of us coming back.
We joined as writers, photographers, associates or editors, awestruck by the 135 years of tradition that came before us. We were eager to be part of something, to contribute to Andover in new ways, to be leaders. But when we finally got the paper all to ourselves, we learned, quickly, that there is so much more to The Phillipian than reporting and editing. Soirées and mocktails, Secret Santa and Christmas lights still hanging in January, the Residence Inn Marriott in New York—these will be our strongest memories of the paper. Next Thursday, 30 of us will walk away from the newsroom, having shared some of our best and worst moments together.
To CXXXVII: we have nothing less than absolute faith in you. We know that you will remove the Oxford Commas and write and re-write and re-re-write the perfect lede. We know that you will chase the hardest stories with integrity, compassion and vigor. We know that you will hold The Phillipian to an even higher standard than we did. But more than anything, we hope that you will not forget to find a reason to come back to the newsroom each night, to love both this paper and the people who make it happen.
So, here’s to the sleepless Wednesday nights that blend into the still of Thursday mornings, the coffee-saturated basement of Morse, delayed Patagonia orders, dead frogs and a mold infestation, Trello, SNL Moet & Chandon, double trucks, The Phillipian Newsroom blog, footprints and handprints, romanesco, missing darts, #pliptrip, Seersucker Thursdays, Salmon Cashmere and a “wide variety of types of people.”
## The Playlist
New Slang – The Shins
Madness – Muse
Wagon Wheel – Old Crow Medicine Show
Wetsuit – The Vaccines
You Don’t Have to be a Prostitute – Flight of the Conchords
Scar Tissue – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Theme from New York New York – Frank Sinatra
Home – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes
Too F***ed Up To Call – 2AM Club
Mirrors – Justin Timberlake
The General – Dispatch
Knee Deep – Zac Brown Band
Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis
L-O-V-E – Nat King Cole
Ignition Remix – R. Kelly
Mr. Tambourine Man – Bob Dylan
Cecilia – Simon & Garfunkel
The Good Times Are Killing Me – Modest Mouse
Stephanie Says – The Velvet Underground
White Flag – Dido
Treasure – Bruno Mars
Piledriver Waltz – Alex Turner
This editorial represents the views of The Phillipian Editorial Board CXXXVI.
