During the last five semesters, this column has attempted to have people think differently about what they take for granted and perhaps change a few minds. Some of you may be asking how and why this article came to be. Well, this time you are getting the history behind it straight from the author himself.
The column started partway through the fall 2021 semester as a topical article discussing the red Solo cup controversy following into its second edition covering Halloween and its faded interest over time. The third edition covered a fall-centric topic about the overabundance of pumpkin spice with the fourth edition covering the restrictive Thanksgiving tradition and suggesting an alternative Friendsgiving, teasing its final edition of the semester with Christmas and its not-so-merry origins.
Spring 2022 continued a holiday theme with Valentine’s Day as its main topic and with the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Things became more college-focused with spring break and its party-centric ways. Some of the topical holiday articles became online exclusive with St. Patrick’s Day, as well as April Fool’s Day having two separate versions made for online and print specifically with the last two issues on Easter and summer break, respectfully.
Fall 2022 was a period of political and sports-centric topics ranging from the high pedestals of football players, the bias of the American news industry, voting and its high-pressure culture, and the last article of the semester being about the FIFA World Cup and its controversial host nation of Qatar and its rules. The column did have more general topics with the fourth and fifth editions devoting time to Daylight Savings time and the musical mire of the holidays.
Spring 2023 brought forth editions such as the expanding world of E-Sports, the origins of fast food, and the under-appreciation of the Liberal Arts. The fourth issue had a callback to last year’s foolish issue with the coloring of domes which had Rumormonger Archie Prince return. It ended in a bang with the last issue being about thank you notes.
Fall 2023 managed to bring the first fan-inspired article about classic rock suggested by the president of the university himself, Dr. Dan Myers. Later issues dealt with the growing influence of A.I, movie theaters’ fading relevancy, the oversaturation of childhood horror games and the most recent version about internet fanaticism. So, with that longer than usual history out of the way…
Allow me to Change Your Mind
This column has become so much to me as I wrote it semester after semester. I could not be more grateful to those who read it and told me they liked it. So, allow me to tell you some fun facts about the column itself.
I had the idea in my head since the start of the fall 2021 semester, but I didn’t pitch it until late September. I brought it up and that’s basically how it got started with the column debuting in the third issue that semester. The first, fourth and fifth editions were up for consideration for a Keystone Award but, unfortunately, did not win.
Spring 2022 (Season 2) was the most difficult issue to write, with the first April Fool’s Day issue having the Tree Catapultiers made out to be much more intimidating in the first two drafts of the issue. This was toned down due to the suggestions of my editor. It was originally meant to coincide with the serious edition but was released a month later and only online.
Fall 2022 (Season 3) had the voting issue almost not make it to print where, due to technological concerns, the updates were not reading on time. The column, however, was able to get in to print in the nick of time.
Spring 2023 (Season 4) was supposed to be one article longer but was cut due to unforeseen circumstances with the last edition of the semester being mentioned specifically by Johnna Evans during her thank you note to The Highlander.
Fall 2023 (Season 5) had a feeling of finality. With the childhood horror article, I felt like I was writing to a specific audience rather than everyone. The internet fanaticism article was originally supposed to be about Taylor Swift specifically but was changed to being about celebrity influencers in general.
I want to thank everyone who helped me with ideas this semester from the staff at The Highlander to President Dan Myers. Thanks to all of you for reading and sharing your positive feedback with me.
One more thing I want to say before I wrap it up. Whether you started reading the column this semester or have been with it from the very beginning, I just want to say…
Thank you. I hope I changed your mind.