Have you ever had an idea you thought was so good that you passionately fought for it until you, yourself, wondered why you thought of it in the first place? Maybe in grade school? The idea for a project that would have been unmatched? Or more recently a TikTok idea that would go viral?
Me too.
Loco Mag theme pitch day is my favorite day of the month, as we usually create around one issue per 4 weeks. It’s the day the staff sits down and just word vomits all of their weird ideas for theme titles and potential articles. Some of them are whacky, some of them are thinkers, and some of them (all of the issues from our current EIC’s first semester) have a kind of… Attitude. It’s just so amusing to bounce ideas off of one another or play with words and make puns.
One thing you should know about me– I’m a sucker for a good title. If it has a nice ring to it, satire, or is just plain clever, chances are I’ll be reading it.
So in September of 2019, prior to theme pitch day, I came up with a few fun theme titles, one of them being Coffee & Paste. Cute, right? It was “back to school” season, so what better way to commemorate our eternal stress and dread than with caffeine, school-related products, and a play on words? Whatever, it worked in my head.
I thought of fun article ideas, like finding/visiting Philly’s most underrated coffee shops, effects of caffeine on a sleep-deprived brain, weird things you ate as a child that were definitely not edible (i.e. paste), how-to videos on making different pastries, or keyboard shortcuts that took you 21 years to learn (ctrl+f makes life so much easier). I was so excited about my idea that I even texted our EIC to make sure I didn’t lose it somewhere in my brain. She told me to pitch it during our meeting. Heck yeah!
The day came, and I pitched Coffee & Paste, much to my own delight. A lot of the staff liked it, which made my heart soar. It was like watching my child grow and develop. (Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating. It was still nice.)
But there were other good theme pitches in the mix, and I became worried– with good reason. My adorable theme pitch was stifled by the resounding popularity of the theme Sorry, Not Sorry. Now, I have no problem with that issue. In fact, I enjoyed working on it immensely. However, it was the issue that started a trend. And it wasn’t a fun trend for my beloved Coffee & Paste.
Every issue since September 2019, that’s SEVEN issues, I have pitched my idea. Each time, it earned a few votes, and most recently, it even made it to the top three! But every single time I got my hopes up, it got rejected. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the themes we’ve come up with, but I can’t deny the ache in my chest that C&P never made it to #1. It’s even become a running joke for our staff. No one is surprised when I pitch it, and no one is surprised when it doesn’t get picked. Not even me.
I’ve come to doubt why I ever thought it was a good pitch in the first place. My brain child, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t that revolutionary. So I sat on my feelings about it for a bit before our theme meeting for what became “Taking the L,” and wondered if I should even pitch it. If not for the sake of the joke, why would I? It clearly wasn’t going to win.
But screw it. I did it anyway because I like it. I thought it was a good idea, and no matter how many rejections it has endured, I still think it’s a good idea. C&P has brought laughs, jokes, smiles, and heartbreak to the Loco staff, and it hasn’t even been chosen as a theme! That’s what a good idea can do.
So now, I leave the legacy to my peers. As I leave the Loco staff, I want them to remember Coffee & Paste. I want them to remember its perseverance throughout this journey. A whole year of rejection, but never failing to make the pitch list.
And who knows, maybe one day I’ll visit Loco’s site and see it in bold letters– finally a theme.
