The changing of the guard

By Bex Peterson, Editor-in-Chief

September is finally here, with blue (mostly smoke-free) skies greeting the first few days of the fall semester. For me, at least, September tends to feel far more like the start of a “new year” than January 1 ever does. Even when I wasn’t going to school and was working full-time, I always seemed to move from one place to another at the end of August or the beginning of September. It’s a time for change, and I could insert a whole metaphor about leaves changing and whatnot, but this is already getting pretty cliché.

For a lot of you, this might be your first week at the college and your first time picking up a copy of the Other Press, so to all of you: Welcome to Douglas! The Other Press is your friendly autonomous student newspaper with a long and illustrious history of providing college and local news to the masses. Well, to the very specific masses of Douglas College campuses, but we’re online now, so there’s that. Within these pages you’ll find campus news, art reviews, fashion views, opinions too, and I can’t figure out a way to rhyme the rest, so I’ll just say we’ve got creative writing, humour articles, comics, crosswords, and a feature about political unrest in Nicaragua.

That’s one thing I love about the Other Press—our independence allows us to cover not just stories about students, but stories we think will be important to students. You never really know what you’re going to find in one of our issues.

I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t take this moment to mention that we publish student writing and are currently hiring for staff positions—and we actually pay our staff and contributors! Take a look at what we do here and if you feel like you have something to contribute, email us (contact info directly below this article) or come to our meetings on Mondays at 6:30 pm in room N1020 at the New West campus. Even if you don’t apply for a full staff position, we love our freelance contributors, and we love it when people wander into our little dungeon for meetings.

Currently we’re still accepting resumes for Staff Writers and Staff Reporter as well as Arts Editor, as our previous Arts Editor Caroline Ho has now moved up to Assistant Editor. Congratulations Caroline, good luck, and sorry for making you read and edit a 1000-word rant on how much I like Dragon Age II, a game that came out seven years ago. We are all about the hottest of hot takes here at the Other Press.

(If you’d like to apply for Staff Writers and Staff Reporter, we’re accepting resumes until September 10. If you’ve got a hankering for the Arts Editor position, please apply no later than September 7.)

I’d also like to take a moment to wave a fond farewell to our previous Editor-in-Chief, Chandler Walter. He’s got a full-time adult job working as a staff writer for the Daily Hive, providing an excellent example and success story that the Other Press can use as a recruiting tool for decades to come. I followed in Chandler’s footsteps every step of the way here, taking on the position of Humour Editor once he moved up to Assistant Editor under the legendary Lauren Kelly, then taking his place as Assistant when he took the reins of the paper. Thank you, Chandler, for paving a path to glory for Humour Editors everywhere.

We don’t even have a Humour Editor anymore; it’s Entertainment Editor now. This conveniently brings us back to my initial point about change, tying up this Lettitor with a neat little narrative bow.

The Other Press is an ever-evolving publication, and I can honestly say becoming a part of it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’m fortunate to work with incredible people. We have a fun and talented newsroom, and we’re all looking forward to making this volume of the Other Press the best it can be.

Finally, it seems as though there’s an unofficial tradition for Editors-in-Chief here to choose a good Lettitor sign-off and stick with it throughout their term. In the spirit of this I’ve searched through several articles about email sign-offs and while I was thinking of choosing a pretty mundane one, I have to share this truly awful, intensely cringe-inducing one first. I was a Humour Editor once after all. Some things never change.

Have a wonderful bountiful lustful day,

Bex