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Assistant Editor's Introductory Message - Dated July 10, 2003

As a writer for the Tribune for the past two years, I have authored more than two dozen articles on a wide variety of subjects. Each article can take anywhere from an hour to a week to write and ready it for publish. As Assistant Editor for the 2003 Yearbook, I have personally edited forty different interviews from members of every clearance level. It wasn't until recently though that I found out that I had to write something for the Yearbook itself, something that everyone would certainly see, and something that would probably be viewed for years after I wrote it. Recently was more than a month ago, and it wasn't until this week that I finally figured out what I should say.

Today is July 10, 2003. Tomorrow is my birthday, the big one-eight. When I checked my e-mail this morning, I had messages from Hobbie, Mac, and Marquis Rex, replying to the mail I sent congratulating them on their promotions. I've replied to six topics on the forums so far today, and have created one of my own. Right now I am in the lead, with one thousand one hundred and sixty-seven posts. Lieutenant Commander Kyle was in Alder Hill earlier, but I barely missed him. Right now as I write this, KC, KittyKat, Michiel, and I are in there, not doing much of anything. I've been planning with Goose, Anth, Iain, Dierna, and others to have a day-long marathon voice chat, beginning at 9AM PST. It should be a blast! John Lennon is singing, "Just Like Starting Over" on the radio. It's hot outside, with the sun bearing down upon my room.

What does all this mean, all these little things about this one little day? Know that this one little day will never come again. What happens today, however unimportant as it may seem, matters somewhere, somehow, and to someone. So while you read the Yearbook, think about the people and what they've said, knowing that their answers might've changed since then, and knowing that perhaps some of those people won't be around next year. Know that today may be boring, may be bad, or may be the best of your life. All your expectations could come true, or perhaps none at all. This day may be one in three hundred and sixty-five, but remember that you couldn't have that without adding all those ones together. Not all days are sacred, and not all of them life-altering, but it is the knowledge that they could be sacred, could be life-altering, or could be your last which is the most important thing of all.

Those events above will never happen again in the same way. Even if a year from when I write this, I try to go about doing the same things; I know that it won't work. There is something in our own minds, perhaps a bit of common sense we don't yet know about that keeps us from doing the same thing twice. It's this that makes each day new, this that makes us wake up one second before our alarm clock, or perhaps ten minutes after you hit the snooze button. So read these interviews, knowing that they are a photograph of one moment in one time.