Editors Deserve a Day Celebrating Their Work

fall 2022 semester. Readers may see me as the only author of the narrative, but the substance of its finalized version is inseparable from multiple modifications and rewordings. Clearly, even a teeny-weeny change in punctuation has a significant influence on the original text — and this is vital to every well-structured story.

My time spent on campus with the editors was brief, but I finally understood what it meant to be in a tight-knit community. It is a community within a community, and getting to know these people who have a great sense of humor and exceptional work ethic was a saving grace for the unpredictable weather and notorious high-stress culture at Amherst. I read somewhere that we might not have an innate talent for doing something, but what we all have is the aptitude to learn. During my short time writing for different sections of the newspaper and talking to different editors, they showed me that my opportunities to learn and improve are limitless. For the first time, I found out how much I loved writing, and became serious about embarking on a career that had writing as a central element. March 3 is International Writers’ Day and is annually observed to appreciate writers of all kinds in the world. On that same note, editors begin as writers. They work their way up through trial and error, and as their writing skill becomes solidified, they take care of other writers’ work. They do not only make edits to our drafts, but they ask questions that challenge writers to rethink sentences and word choices more logically. To me specifically, the task of an Amherst Student editor goes beyond refining words: They carry on their shoulders the legacies and traditions of one of the oldest college newspapers, reinforce the freedom of the press, and shape the standards for stories worth telling for generations to come. Because of them, fresh incoming writers walk in feeling supported and ready for the mission of keeping the college community well aware of its surroundings. For these (and so many other) reasons, editors deserve a day just for themselves.

As we celebrate all writers from all around the world, I urge us to leave some space to express our gratitude to the editors — editors from your literary organization, associates from the college’s writing center, and advisors for your thesis, and anyone else that has helped elevate your writing skill to where it is today.

To my editors, thank you for working endlessly, rain or shine, to make sure my work is nothing short of its best version. No matter how much time has flown by, nothing has changed about the fact that you amplified my voice and that you forever changed my life. That effort has never gone unnoticed.