Letter from the Editor 03.13.2019

From Feb. 7 to Feb. 28, I received no emails on my Penn account. So if you were trying to get in touch with me, I’m sorry, I never got it. Honestly, it took a long time for me to notice. I’d been using the email app on my phone and computer, and the barrage of emails to my Daily Pennsylvanian account distracted me enough that for three full weeks, I didn’t notice anything was wrong. 

The Thrive at Penn emails? Lost in the ether. My ENGL 051 professor’s comments on my work? Didn’t see ‘em. The Politico Playbook newsletter? Never heard of her. 

Once I realized that my email wasn’t working, I beelined to go get it fixed and ran into my friend Louis on Locust. I gave him a hug, got my hair caught in his stubble, and when he asked me how I was, as if on cue, I started crying (thanks for putting up with my emotional volatility, Lou!) I was stressed, really stressed, and so overwhelmed that three weeks I didn’t notice my own email was broken. I applied to jobs with that email, hooked it up to my PayPal account, and used it for class listservs. But I felt so frantic and overwhelmed that I didn’t even notice their absence. And I was so damn mad at myself.  

And then I walked into Steinberg–Dietrich Hall’s basement to see the Wharton Computing people. Even though I haven’t been a Wharton student for over a year, I had kept the email. No one from the College ever contacted me about setting up my @sas.upenn.edu account.  The access to Huntsman GSRs and the Wharton printing credit were incentive enough to keep it.

But really, I was resistant to change. So I walked into the room, spoke to a Wharton Computing employee, and asked them to follow up later via my (now–working) email. A day later, I got a long message.  

The crux of it? They couldn’t recover my lost emails, save for their subject lines and sender. As I scrolled through, skimming, I saw a sentence I’d been dreading: “In our investigation, we have discovered that you have transferred to SAS and no longer a Wharton student. Because you are no longer a Wharton student, you are not entitled to a Wharton email account.”

Don’t tell Wharton, but the account seems to still be open. But it’s time for me to close it out. 

I set up the SAS account, reached out to tell my CAPS psychologist and the jobs I’d applied to, and sat with it for a while. I did leave Wharton, and it’s time to cut the cord. I’m doing what I love now, as hard as it is to try to work in journalism. And I’m happy, I think. I’m trying to pace myself, to work through my stress, and to give myself time to do healthy things. I even tried kombucha this week. 

I’m going to try to be a little less resistant to change, and in turn, a little less stressed out. Even if I miss a few emails from time to time.