One final editorial for one ever-lasting team. Get ready to bid farewell to The Record CXX board: 19 frenzied print editors and two faculty advisors convening every Thursday and every other Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to bring stories to life. On one hand, hours of relentless editing, vivid arguments, last-minute phone calls, and endless hours spent working past check-in characterize our meetings. But on the other side, interactions with fascinating faculty and professional speakers, networks with alumni from New York to Shanghai, Record dinner parties, and Sunday layout brunches have brightened our experiences on the board.

Throughout our three-and-a-half years, we have had the privilege of growing not only as editors but also as a newspaper, launching a full online platform, an updated design and paper size, a weekly newsletter, and an Instagram page. And we have had the even greater privilege of experiencing this journey with 16 equally talented and determined editors. So thank you, Ms. Villano, Ms. Wynn, and all the editors on the CXX editorial board for this genuine, sometimes challenging, often visionary, and all-time breathtaking ride – our ride.

Gregoria:

Thursday, November 19, 2015. I came in ready to write an article about Movember, interview students and faculty, and hand it in. I came in ready to understand and to listen and to learn. I came in ready to be a good writer, maybe even a great editor. But what I didn’t come in ready for were the waves of wildest creativity and ambitious team spirit that hit me, shook me. I realized, as I got more involved and became a News Editor, that it was meaningless to just listen and learn, write and edit. No, I wanted it all, the tiny surpassed details, the nuanced storytelling, and the picture-perfect design aesthetics. And so I learned, what I could perhaps categorize as one of the most important lessons of my four yours here: never be afraid to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. It was this ability to rediscover the already discovered that pushed me forth in every article and kept me enthusiastic at every meeting and layout. Even though a myriad of editors had directed the newspaper before me, it was this very power to bring my own viewpoint and my own ideas to the ink that kept me feeling alive: the burst of zeal that led to the creation of all-inclusive email chains, “News Beyond Hotchkiss,” writing workshops, and countless more ideas.

As my Senior winter comes to an end, there is really no other way I would like to sign off the epitome of “the Hotchkiss grind.” So cheers to pursuing the highest caliber of newspaper writing and design while knowing that the caliber will never be reached. The world of storytelling and writing is endless, and today, thanks to this team and its values, I believe I am too.

Harry: As a Prep, I took a lot of photos. As a Lower Mid, I took many more, and I became a Photo-Editor the same year. Upper Mid year, I pushed myself to learn design, and with the help of friends Pete Assakul ’18 and Edward Guo ’19, I successfully made a push to redesign the layout and format of the paper just prior to becoming Editor-in-Chief. The ride has been wild, from riling up students over vegetarian options in the dining hall, to backing up the student body during the inter-dorming policy change this Fall, to covering smaller issues, such as the opinions regarding Chapel and Class Meeting attendance. It isn’t a secret that I’ve indulged a passion for publicizing all-school student survey data. Walking into the dining hall for lunch, only to be welcomed by the smiles on many faces and perhaps the befuddlement on others seemed to make other lunches seem so quiet. Through sharing the opinions of students, faculty, and administration, I hoped to inspire others to take a step towards making change, and I believe most of the time, righteous changes have been achieved. Being a part of the CXX team has been a thrill. From accidentally mistaking Ms. Villano and two other actual editors for writers and telling them to stay outside of our Thursday meeting room for ten more minutes to constantly bugging Nicholas Lorentzen ’20 to make edits I was too lazy to make just prior to his run for president, each day that passed felt like we all were only becoming closer. I thank everyone on the board for working with me and everyone who contributed to the paper for the many hours you put in to making our Record the way we serve it so tasty for lunch.

Zoe: I remember the first time that I was invited to layout Sunday as an aspiring layout editor. I was asked to lay out pages for the Opinions section, as both of its editors had been plagued with a flu that was going around campus. I painstakingly placed each picture, article, and cartoon on the pages, which took me well over four hours to do. As I admired my work and made final touches, the temperamental software flashed an ominous red command box and subsequently quit, resulting in the complete loss of my pages. My time recreating the page could have been miserable, but two Senior editors generously stayed behind in SB 202 and hung out with me for the entire afternoon. They showed me that The Record is about community – working together and looking out for each other no matter what. That is what makes The Record so special; and though I might not miss the late Saturday night article-editing or frantic searches for cartoons, I will miss the family that is the CXX board.

Priyanka:  The Record was the first club at Hotchkiss that I joined within the first few weeks of arriving as a Prep, but after these last four years, calling The Record a club would not do it justice. Instead, it has been a job, a duty, a joy, a lifestyle, and most importantly, a family. I have gained countless friends and memories from late nights at 1 a.m. updating the paper about the latest Stu-Fac to endless meetings with the administration to get the digital platform up and running. Yet every painstaking moment has been worth the chance to raise up the voices of the students when they had issues they wanted others to hear about and to see our community engage with the world around us. I have been honored to serve as The Record’s inaugural president and could not be more proud of the work this CXX Board has done. I would like to thank Ms. Wynn and Ms. Villano for their countless hours of editing and the guidance they have given us this past year. But most of all, thank you to all of our readers without whom our work would have no meaning. Even as I end my time at Hotchkiss within the coming months, I know that I will fondly remember my CXX family for years to come.

Signing off for one last time,

The Record CXX Editorial Board