From Two Graduating Editors: Farewell, McKendree Review

Featured image from McKendree University

Magdalena Knapp, Editor in Chief

Never in my life would I have imagined that one day I would be the editor for a school newspaper. I have always loved writing and the way it makes me feel. By writing, you can share your emotions and thoughts with the world, whether it is something important, something funny, or something sad. Writing never judges you for anything, but through writing you can judge everything.

My first journalism class in college was “Writing for the News Media.” It was a small class and I thought our teacher, who soon became sort of my mentor, Mr. Shapiro, was a funny guy. He always had a joke ready, whether it was a joke about students, something that happened to him that day, or a very very dark humor joke (I really enjoyed those). I took the class as my escape from reality; I loved listening to him as he was sharing fun anecdotes from his career as a journalist. My very first piece I wrote for this class was titled “How Do You Know You Are Not American?” – it was a satiric piece about my experience in the United States where I tried to cope with all the differences I have noticed between my culture and the American way of life. This piece soon got published by our school newspaper, which, at the time, only published articles once or twice a month. I loved the feeling of having my own stories out there on the World Wide Web, and so I continued writing.

The following year, Mr. Shapiro made me one of the editors and this is how my journey started. Nobody knew about the McK Review, but I made it to my mission to make it bigger. With my team at the time, we started publishing articles more often, increasing first to twice a week until we reached our current schedule of posting Monday-Wednesday-Friday.

Thanks to the McK Review I got to meet so many people from campus; I wrote profiles about them, worked together with faculty members, and created a network around the Review. During this whole time, I was supervised by the one and only Mr. Gabriel Shapiro.

Throughout the years Mr. Shapiro showed more patience with me and my writing staff and I could have ever imagined. Even if we sometimes lacked editing skills due to poor time management, also on my behalf, he would always have encouraging rather than criticizing words.

This newspaper was my big project during my time at McKendree University. I was there when its first flyers were printed, the first table tents distributed on campus, and when it first published a very controversial article that got us more publicity than any other article during my career. I loved being an editor; it gave me a purpose, and I hope that future editors will love the McK Review as much as I do and that they will keep it rolling. The Review deserves that.

Love,

Magda

Katherine Gemmingen, Head Copyeditor

When I sat down to write my final post for the McKendree Review as Head Copyeditor, I could not figure out what I was feeling. It seems like, as with so many other parts of my McKendree life, my work with the Review is ending way faster than I could have imagined. Of course, some of that is probably attributed to the fact that I’m graduating a year early; some is also due to the pandemic that has changed everything for everyone.

It seems strange to say goodbye to editing for the Review. My weekly routine will feel like I’m missing something; I’m sure there will be a few nights here and there where I panic about whether a piece is ready to be posted before I remember that the Review is no longer (partially) in my hands.

Being Head Copyeditor has been everything and more that my grammar-freak self could have wanted. I have gotten to work with an incredible advisor and co-editing staff. I have been able to share my own thoughts about certain McKendree aspects for the entire Bearcat community.

The craziest thing is that I am just now realizing how much more I wanted to write. I wish I had taken the time before I no longer had the chance. All my article ideas that I have in the notes section of my phone will sit there until I have the willpower to delete them. I wanted to use the Review as a platform for issues I care about, and I have done so in some ways, but I think it’s only normal for me to wish I had done more.

We all are kind of in this stage of limbo. Just as I didn’t realize how little time left I had to write articles, I had no idea my time with my roommate and friends would be cut so short. I didn’t realize that we wouldn’t have any more of the Friday nights we spent following along to Bob Ross painting videos that usually ended with a couple of us trying to give up while another refused to let us quit.

I have loved the McKendree Review so dearly. I am so proud of the work that my co-editors and I have done as a team. I will miss our weekly meetings and our group chat. I’ll even miss the emails from our advisor admonishing us for sloppy editing that would occasionally occur when we (I) would slack off for a post.

To the Bearcats who return next year, and to all those following, keep the Review alive and kicking. Don’t be afraid to raise a little bit of journalistic hell every once in a while. Thank you for everything.