Lauren Sarney Editor-at-Large

Do you feel heard? Do you feel like you’d know if you did?  

What I’ve loved about The Mike at every stage – from Staff Writer to Features Editor to Editor-At-Large, and always as an avid reader – is that it is an unpretentious, welcoming space for the expression of creativity. I have written some of my best work for The Mike, better than some of my assignments, because I felt like it. Because I had something to say, and I had a safe platform to say it. It came with a fatigued sigh, a tossing up of the shoulders – I didn’t feel anyone had or would read my writing. It’s awkward to ask people to see you. But that is almost besides the point, because writing shouldn’t be about having others recognize your work – it should be about pushing yourself to say what you want to say, to make room to try out new ideas, to come up with strange and novel expressions, to put yourself on a page in a way that feels as though you’ve chunked out a piece of your soul and splatted it flat into the newspaper (gnarly!)  

This, I feel, is what The Mike should strive to be. The theme for this issue is one that is supposed to evoke transparency, rebuild what has been broken. I had fun last year, but it was not without its challenges (I feel that could have been the slogan for all of last year, if I’m honest.) Going forward, we need a change. And that comes from you, dearest reader.  

All this to say, if you’ve ever contemplated writing for The Mike but have not, do it now. Take the leap. Try the new thing. Surprise your current self, fill your future self’s heart with fondness 

for you at present. Just in case my disembodied goading isn’t enough to settle some of your concerns, here are some (internally) frequently asked questions that I hope will encourage you to write:  

1. No one reads The Mike, and I want my work to get read.  

You’re not going to read your own writing? That’s a crucial issue that you should deal with now, my friend.  

2. The Mike is too posh for me, I don’t feel my writing would fit in. I don’t want to be judged by the Section Editors, Copy Editors, the readers.  

Last year we put out, I believe, four articles just about the Eras Tour. The theme of one issue was the Eras Tour. Don’t let the Jacques-Louis David fool you, our publication is not the pretentious kind! We want all different points of view, a wonderful array of feelings and thoughts and words. If you don’t like the first work you put in, write another. Watch yourself progress.  

3. The Mike isn’t posh enough for me, I read Hegel!  

Good for you, he’s an insane person. He’s also one of my favourite theorists, which is part of my answer to this: part of the great fun in writing for a newspaper with as little stakes as this is that you get to experiment. Can you pull Cleanth Brooks and J. D. Salinger into a film review? I have! How can you weave your web of thoughts and references into a piece about sports or arts? In what creative ways can you put your lived experience onto the page? It’s a wonderful challenge, made better by the, again, impossibly low stakes. If you take the work seriously then it’s work worth doing. Also, not bad as a writing sample to add to your LinkedIn, just saying. 

4. I don’t have the time to write/ I’m in a science-based major so I don’t write.

 These are entirely fair points – they all are – so what I’ll invite you to do is to imagine your life as comprised of many different parts: family, friends, schoolwork, working out, creative output. I’ve found writing to be a fantastic way of using my brain creatively, outside the essays and the readings for school.  

5. 500 words feels like a lot, and 1000 is unthinkable.  

Fair enough… but have you considered that 500 words is just “For sale, baby shoes, never worn” 83.33333333333 times? It’s also only a percentage of “War and Peace.” What I’m getting at here, if you catch my drift, if you ascertain my meaning, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down, is that we shan’t punish you for vamping!  

6. Don’t judge me but I’ve used Chat so frequently in this past bit that I think I’d use it for an article which I know is not allowed.  

I imagine this will be the challenge moving forward, and I get it! We’re becoming digitized, and generative A.I. is a part of that. I’d invite you to fight that urge, and instead embrace writing poorly. Write a terrible sentence and then rewrite it. Write without a verb. Write without punctuation. Just write! You can refine it in post, and you can save the initial draft to look back and laugh about.  

What I’m circling the drain on here is that you deserve to be heard. You deserve to see your thoughts written down and carefully compiled in a newspaper. You deserve to have something 

fun to show around to your pals, and then put in a box one rainy day, and then at the age of thirty-five tenderly throw it out when you Marie-Kondo before the move to your first home. Why shouldn’t you? More importantly, why wouldn’t you make that happen for yourself?  

I feel that The Mike’s possible staying-power relies on continuing to create a space for art, for challenge, for change. Cringe while you can – if we go about this year’s paper with authenticity, organic emotion, and a feeling of zeal for the work of putting together something outside of ourselves, we can make a paper we’re proud of. I’m an optimist, but I do feel that that will come from writers like you.