Hey there! Before I go about writing all my thoughts down, irrespective of whether or not they make sense, I want to introduce myself. I’m the editor of Whistles and Echoes. I’ve been the editor this entire year and while things may not have gone as planned, I am very proud of the work the team has done but that is a conversation for another time.
The reason I am writing this is that, well, this is the last one I will ever write for Whistles and Echoes, not only as the editor, but also in general (have you seen our schedule? I’m in my third year, I can’t even write to my sister who’s in boarding school. [She probably hasn’t noticed, so it’s fine]). Anyway, like I was saying, I will be moving on to…other things in life (I would have said bigger and better but who knows. The world is scary.) and will, therefore, be passing the baton onto somebody else.
For them, and for you reading this, I have a few words of wisdom (the article thus far should have told you how very wise I am).
No, but in all seriousness. I may not know much, but what I do know for certain is that each and every student I have met at Whistling Woods is incredibly passionate. This comes from general conversation, eavesdropping on others’ conversation (we’ve all been there, shut up), watching people run around campus for assignments and all of that. But, the one place where I have really really seen people’s passion flourish in the most beautiful place, it is Whistles and Echoes.
Maybe I’m partial because this is what I have been committed to longest, or maybe that writing is my favourite art form, but I’m being very serious when I say that I have been genuinely blown away by some of the articles I have read. You could go back, read every single piece and just declare that I’m exaggerating, but it’s true and I have my reasons.
Sometimes, when I would get an article and I would read the author’s name, I would (and I’m being as brutally honest here as I can) sigh and make sure I have enough time to edit the article “properly”. Not because I thought this person wasn’t talented or that their language was lacking in any way. Most times it was because I thought that person could not have cared enough and that they possibly submitted a half-assed article because “well, I volunteered, might as well get done with it”.
Even when we changed our system and instead of having just one fixed group of writers we would ask students to volunteer to write, I wasn’t too bullish about the whole thing. I thought people would treat it like just another chore (basically I didn’t think they were passionate enough to write well) and even then, I was wrong and I’m very happy I was.
The reason I am telling you this is because I want you to pursue your passion. Not just professionally. You’re here so I know you’re already doing that, but I want you to carry this passion into everything you do, into every new day. If you think you want to give it a go, try writing about things you’re passionate about. If not, that’s fine. There are a million ways for you to keep your passion and express it, but I just want you to do it.
When I was just a writer for Whistles and Echoes, sure, I wasn’t as invested in the blog as I am now, but I knew that with every article I wrote, every single word that I published under my name was for me to cherish. People found those words and they embraced them too, they liked them, they appreciated them the way I did and that was an added bonus.
I found my passion for writing and that passion grew threefold with Whistles and Echoes. This passion for me, helped me find my purpose, it guided my every decision to bring me here today. It made me feel like I belonged and that there will always be people who share my passion, and if not, at least they acknowledge it, which is not something I can claim for the times before I started showing people what I had written, unfortunately.
My point is: find your passion. Find the really big passion that will become a big part of your character, but find all these other small things that you are passionate about and revel in them. Believe me, there are times when I also turn into a burnt-out blob that’s sick of the world screaming about how there is no point to any of this, but those small small passions that I have; they kept me going. For example, I really like stationary. I am passionate about collecting colourful stationery that I put in my drawer and just stare at while I use a normal classmate pen (the one that’s black but has blue ink in it for some reason) because the fancy ones are too pretty to use, so on days when I feel like that miserable blob, I rearrange my stationary, maybe buy some more and have my mother yell at me because “Didn’t you just get more? What are you, made of money? You don’t even use this!” I’m also a huge history buff so when I’m really tired, I watch videos about how people killed each other five hundred years ago (I’m not a nerd, history is really fun. Did you know Cleopatra and Julius Ceaser had a child? Yeah, thought so. It’s weird and twisted and you never know who’s related to whom).
Anyway, I digressed.
Yeah, with this being my last article, I knew this would be my last opportunity to let this message be known to a bunch of people. I had decided a long time ago that whenever the time came to say goodbye, I would not leave unexpectedly, or without a single word, and I wanted that word to be meaningful. And now is the time to say goodbye for me.
So goodbye dear reader, and thank you for giving me the platform you have. I will not forget this experience. Goodbye Team Whistles and Echoes, you continue to impress me with the work you do each time. Goodbye blog, I owe so much to you, thank you for displaying my work so proudly. Goodbye editorship, I will miss the ego boost you gave me.
Goodbye guys, I hope to see more articles on the blog starting next year. I will still read all your work and I can already tell you, I’m going to love it.