I spent a lot of time apart from LocoMag this year, studying abroad and traveling in Europe from January through May, then traveling the US over the summer months. I finally returned to spend the fall in Pennsylvania, watching leaves darken and tumble from the trees, enjoying my last glimpses of sunshine and warm weather before winter sets in… oh, and getting buried in statistics homework. Throughout this (crazy) year so far, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect. I thought about my impact in the world and whether I, as an individual in the communications field, can make any sort of difference. I wondered whether the voice I was bringing to the table was new, or if I was just doomed to regurgitate things I’ve heard. It seemed to me that the internet was filled with people saying the same tired things.
I was ready to jump back into Loco with the beginning of the semester, though my reservations and questions hadn’t gone away. At our first meeting, I saw several new faces and was reunited with a few familiar ones. The month progressed and I taught the newbies how we do things at Loco – running a magazine is no small task, especially for college students with already full plates. I remembered why I enjoy Loco more than anything else I do at college – why, really, I’m obsessed with LocoMag: it’s entirely student-run. Once a week, I get to sit in a room with several of my peers who are eager to say things, to write and record and interview and photograph and create content. Pitch week was a flurry of enthusiastic ideas; as I left in the cooling evening trying to discern why my chest felt so light, I realized that I was being too cynical before. Everyone has something distinct and new to share, because everyone comes at the world in their own way.
LocoMag is an opportunity for students to share our unique and diverse perspectives with the world. And we’ve been doing it for 25 issues! Publishing Loco is no small task – and why would we keep doing it, why would this legacy of making things we don’t have to make continue if we didn’t have something to say?
Whether you came to Loco 25 issues or 25 minutes ago, thank you for reading. Without your support, we would be saying all of the unique, diverse things we have to say to an empty room. As for me, I look forward to reading LocoMag for years to come, as it will continue to be held up by students’ enthusiasm and eagerness to share.
