Letter from the Editor, November 2022

Consider yourself warned, this letter is about Taylor Swift—although thankfully not in the Twitter discourse way. It’s become somewhat of a tradition to write one of these letters about a celebrity, mostly because of one particular Swiftie who used to occupy my role, and it felt only right that the release of Swift's tenth album earned her another. 

Now, on the evening of the Midnights release, I sit in the Stroffice—unsurprisingly, at midnight.

Swift has said the album encapsulates “13 sleepless nights” over the course of her life, weaving together the deep pains and joys you only feel at such eerie hours. Listening to these songs for the second time today (yes, I listened to the leaked songs, sue me), it’s easy to see how the hazy feeling you get in the middle of the night translates into so many different emotions.

Midnights are often when your biggest moments happen. It’s when you drunk dial your ex, cut your bangs impulsively, or spiral into a mild existential crisis. A fundamentally in–between space, midnights force you to embrace change, whether it’s happening in the world around you or inside your own mind. 

At the same time, midnights are often when you return to a familiar place. Nostalgia can easily creep in as you walk back from a night out or stay up late to finish an assignment. A desire for tranquility can supersede even the most joyous kinds of chaos. 

We at Street have spent our fair share of midnights in this office, putting together magazines like the one you’re holding right now. Uncertainty and transience shape everything we do as a mere fact of our youth and temporariness as students, but we manage to produce our own collection of midnights each time we send another issue to the printer. 

This month, it feels like there are too many uncertainties to count. We don’t know who the next leader of our city will be and what they’ll do with that power, or even whether we’ll get to see our favorite celebrities perform live after waiting hours in the rain. There’s very little we can say with certainty, so instead I’ll say this: Next time you’re awake at midnight and feeling uncertain, I hope our magazine can make you feel a little less alone.