Editor's Note

You can become attached to a place very quickly. I endured quite a bit of abuse from friends about how often I studied in the 1902 room during my early terms at the College — and I’ll admit that I still like the place today. The room’s grime and vague stench of despair can really get the neurons firing. I have produced my strongest writing (not this column) in that space. If you think about it carefully, it’s hard to deny how essential spaces and buildings are to shaping an experience. I’m excited to publish a magazine that makes the case for architecture as a crucial element of campus life. As I wrestled with this Editor’s Note, I was reminded that there are many ways to write a bad sentence about architecture. I could’ve written something about how architecture is “inscribed in the soul,” or “makes the heart sing” or “inspires deep-seated joy.” Icky. Considering that this Note will be read by the legions of Mirror readers from coast to coast has certainly forced me to tone down my writing. Score one for personal growth. Also score one for my editors who have to try to decipher these Notes each week and pretend to be amused. There is one key difference between my editors and you, dear reader. Even though they may think it, my editors can’t get away with calling this Note “complete trash” or “boring as hell” to my face because they need to work with me each week. But I have hardly made it into Collis this term without being forced to dodge a barrage of the last week’s crumpled-up Editor’s Notes chucked at my face by hordes of jeering students. Perhaps those students are simply clamoring for an updated Editor’s Note photo. ‘Who is that svelte and sultry man-child,’ some readers are wondering. ‘And why is the photo above his Notes from the spring?’ I take my readers’ inquiries very seriously. Unfortunately, however, updating the photo that comes alongside this Note is the only reader demand that this diligent Mirror editor will never be able to satisfy. To those of you who want to know what I look like today in 2015, I say this: I am capable of being photogenic approximately once every 13 months, so you will have to make due with Charlie circa spring 2014. To my online readers, who do not see a photo adjacent to this column, I can only apologize for a paragraph that made no sense. Here’s hoping this issue on architecture becomes inscribed in your soul, makes your heart sing, inspires deep-seated joy, etc.