In the Cameron Crowe classic Say Anything…, Diane Court explains, “I have a theory of convergence, that good things always happen with bad things.” This moment marks for me such an intersection: today is the much-anticipated arrival of shoutouts and my last letter as Editor-in-Chief of this magazine. (I’ll leave it to you to decide which is the good and which is the bad.)
Anticipation is always a dangerous state; we’ve all experienced a time when the result didn’t live up to the build up. Yet sometimes it can be just as disappointing when expectations are realized. I had hoped that when I reached this moment I’d feel relieved and liberated from my extracurricular duties (did you know the Street office has no windows?). But not-so-secretly I knew it would be bittersweet, which is exactly what I’ve found to be true. Because — as I’m sure is the case for many of you — “extracurricular” does not begin to describe what you do outside of the classroom: it is your chance to be a part of something both intensely personal and yet greater than yourself. Good bye does not necessarily come easy.
But don’t worry! No matter your impatience this semester, shoutouts will yield nothing but immense satisfaction.
More importantly, so will the next team in charge of bringing you the best Street possible each week. This annual change is what maintains the freshness, the relevancy, of the magazine — the very traits that make me love it so much and the reason I even had the opportunity to lead Street for the past year. And even more importantly, it’s (hopefully) what keeps you reading from week to week… or from recitation to recitation, at least.
As sorry as I am to go, my exit is, in a way, the purpose of my entrance: it is the cycle that makes Penn what it is (and has been) for each class for the last 200+ years. There is something equally comforting and inspiring in such a constant revolution. It is what makes Penn ours.
It’s been a privilege. Thanks for the memories!
Here’s to you,
Kerry
