Letter from the Editor
Dear reader,
Thank you for helping to make my time at St. Lawrence special.
I’ve been at The Hill News in an editorial capacity since the fall of my sophomore year and I’m hard pressed to say that anything better defines my time at SLU. You, the reader, motivate us every week to dig for news harder, write more about the things you care about, and brainstorm new ways to keep you engaged in the ever-evolving media environment that we’re blossoming (or backing) ourselves into.
In two weeks, I’ll be graduating early, making this my last edition of The Hill News. Choosing to cut my time short was an arduous decision. On one hand I’m saving on a semester’s worth of expenses, on the other, I’m surrendering one last semester with so many of the things at SLU, like The Hill News, that I’ve come to love.
That decision, which I made around a year ago, wasn’t easy – but it’s choices like that we all bear the burden of making throughout life. With that being said, I wanted to leave you all with a few of the ideas that helped me work through that decision.
Firstly, you’re never going to know what something means to you until you look at it retrospectively. Rainer Maria Rilke, a modernist Austrian poet, once wrote “let everything happen to you, beauty and terror, just keep going, no feeling is final.”
That quote always spoke to me. As humans, we tend to place such a high emphasis on the present and events of the present. Truth is, the hardships, or if you’re lucky, the joys you face now will come to pass and so will your current way of thinking about them. One day, every setting and season of your life will make sense just as a singular paint stroke eventually does to a completed canvas.
However, that future reassurance does little to make change in the moment facile. In his meditations, Marcus Aurelias, the 16th emperor of the Roman Empire, spent more time mulling change than perhaps any other idea. Aurelias equates change to universal nature, arguing that life without change is hardly life at all.
However, despite being the most powerful human of his time, he too struggled with addressing change. At times, he also equates it to “decay,” something that takes a toll and is unavoidable.
While change may be unavoidable, it’s ultimately up to us what we make of it. In fact, it’s that idea that cabooses my favorite novel, “East of Eden,” by John Steinbeck. The book recreates the biblical story of Cain and Abel, chronicling generations of the Trask family as they settle themselves into the American west.
One of the most powerful moments comes when Adam Trask, on his deathbed, whispers “timshel” into his son Cal’s ear. The word is Hebrew for the phrase “thou mayest,” symbolically breaking generations of mistakes and absolving Cal of his familial past.
It’s a reminder that nothing is predetermined and that we can take the reins of our lives. Change is going to come whether you want it to or not. We shouldn’t simply conform to it but instead take control of it. Whenever you’re faced with change, remember it’s your choice to take it how you want it because you’re ultimately going to have to take it anyways.
Best of luck St. Lawrence, from one last time, on The Hill,
Zach Jaworski
Editor-in-Chief