We love working for The Plainsman. It's an experience we will remember for the rest of our lives, especially our experiences from this summer.
To be honest, our first few issues weren't what we consider to be our best work.
Anything newsworthy seemed to just trickle in. We had a few truly interesting stories, like our feature on local LEGO master Eric Harshbarger, but news was sparse, particularly for the sports section.
In our meetings, we joked about how uneventful this summer would be and pleaded to the gods of journalism for something to write.
And, they gave us exactly what we asked for.
On Saturday, June 9, our boring summer transformed into a treacherous monster, and we had to act fast before it swallowed us all whole.
The shooting at University Heights was only the beginning of a summer marred by violence and tragedy. Tuscaloosa and Aurora, Colo. for us are two more indelible spots on the summer that makes being a journalist very disheartening.
Of course, who are we to say we feel bad about this summer. There are way too many families hurting, and way too many families who lost loved ones. We have no room to complain about a few sleepless nights.
In a concurrence that hasn't quite registered with us, the Auburn family has also lost two of its members in two tragic, separate car accidents. Again, we can't imagine the pain the Garrett and Carr families are going through, but we want them to know that the Auburn family is grieving with them.
Our experience this summer has definitely forced us to grow as journalists, students and people. We've had to put our sensibilities on hold in order to cover these events, and we have all changed a little bit because of that.
Now, this summer in its entirety has not been discouraging, but we can't help feeling like misfortune has followed us these past few months. We've certainly tried to convey, at least in our editorials, that our society needs to place more importance on humanity and intelligence. If we have reached at least one person with those ideas, then our work this summer has not been in vain.
If we learned anything from the events of this summer, it would be the importance of humanity, and the importance of respect.
And not in some spaced-out hippie sense, either; but in the simple fact that all people, whether you like them or not, deserve to live their lives. There will never be a just reason for people to act like alleged shooters Desmonte Leonard, Nathan Van Wilkins or James Holmes. Those are the actions of cowards.
In spite of all that has made this a summer we will never forget, we are looking forward to the fall semester.
We hope to return with a revitalized morale and a sense of accomplishment. Now that our website is publishing daily updates, we hope that we can provide our readers with more quality news and fulfill the responsibilities they expect from us.
We are the voice of Auburn, a spirit that is not afraid.
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