I never intended to start working for The Mirror. I applied to be Chief Copy Editor in Feb. 2017 assuming that I wouldn’t get hired, and then, (as you may have guessed), I got hired. I considered quitting before I started, but I’m one of those people who is extremely determined to finish out a commitment. I was going abroad in Fall 2017, so I figured hey, what the hell – I’ll finish out the semester. I left after those first few months with an attitude of “goodbye forever,” and had no intention of rejoining The Mirror staff. But when I was abroad, I kept thinking of the funny newsroom memories – the bonding, the quotes and all the things I had learned. It helped that I was having a ton of fun submitting study abroad articles every other week.
Then, in Nov. 2017, when I was chilling in Ireland having the time of my life, our new Editor-in-Chief Lexi (so proud of you, Lex!) reached out to me to ask if I wanted to be Opinion Editor when I came back and she went abroad to London. I pivoted from ‘eh’ to ‘let me think about it’ to ‘sure, yes’ in about 15 minutes, because I kept thinking of that newsroom energy. I didn’t know how to do InDesign, but I figured I’d learn, because The Mirror needed me.
So I was Opinion Editor for a semester, and then I agreed to be Chief Copy Editor again, I guess because of Stockholm Syndrome. Actually, that’s not true – it’s because The Mirror matters so much more to me than I ever could have anticipated. Over the course of my 12 issues as Opinion, my opinions (see, it’s funny because) on The Mirror pivoted completely.
There’s nowhere else like The Mirror on campus. The Tuesday night coffees, the InDesign woes, the deadline stories and late night Mamma Mia jams. There’s nothing like putting together an investigative story with the intrepid Alicia (EIC emeritus), texting section editors about interesting things on campus, or trying frantically to come up with headlines when Claire says ‘I need a pun!’ I don’t know what I’m going to do without The Mirror on Tuesdays.
I never meant to work for this newspaper, but now I can’t imagine what my life on campus would be like without it. The staff are people I have dance parties with, the people who hear my ‘you’ll never believe this’ stories, the only people who call me ‘Sabine!’ I’m so glad I didn’t quit, and two years ago I wouldn’t have expected to write this sentence.
Good luck to the new staff. I’m gonna miss you guys.
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