Eight Years.
Pylorns and I have known each other for a little over 8 years now, but that’s not really the focus of this little post. Actually, the period of time is only relevant because of something I found recently during the move up to The OKC.
See, one of the items I got rid of in my move was a very old wooden chest my great-grandfather had owned as a tool chest. I had kept it for nearly 20 years myself, but it finally met its fate during an attempt to move it out of my old apartment. The chest contained 18 years worth of memories and such, almost all of which was unsalvageable as during that period of time the chest internally began to break down further. In fact, every time I had attempted to open the chest in the last few years it resulted in an allergic reaction that would leave me miserable for several days on end.
One of the items I removed from my ownership in this move was an old copy of a newpaper that circulated across the LSU campus for one semester in 1999. This newspaper, such as it was, was called The Spectrum. It was the brainchild of a couple of guys who lived outside of LSU’s South gates, Matt and Jason.
Why is this important, you might ask?
It’s not, really. Well… save that it was the first publication that I participated in as a writer.
I had found information on the launch of the paper through flyers on LSU’s campus I was still in school at the time, though practically in official capacity. The events of the previous summer were still weighing heavily on me, and my participation was limited to making sure I was on campus and little more. I had already shaken off that semester as a loss, and was able to convince the school to let me drop the semester and retake my courses the next semester. As I was walking around the school, I found the flyer looking for interested writers.
Within two weeks, I was the Entertainment editor for The Spectrum.
God, I wish I was joking on that point.
It was bad enough that I hadn’t really developed any sense of a writing style. Further, I had never been published save for one letter to the editor in the 8th grade where I espoused the timeless tradition of sticking up for MTV, wth such viable and legendary artists as Paula Abdul and Bryan Adams. (Fuck it. I was 12 at the time, so sue me. Although, it was a bit funny finding my parents only learning of this letter once it was published…) I was by default the Entertainment Editor for a paper just launching a month later.
Needless to say, I sucked.
Badly.
Seriously- a Hoover vacuum sucked less than those articles did, and I didn’t care one bit for one simple reason. I got paid.
Actually, it was funny in that my writing wasn’t the worst thing about the paper. First issue, I’m not kidding, ends up getting some free publicity in the other newspapers for the campus by having its “babe of the day” on the back, wearing short shorts and an open LSU baseball jersey. After the flack, the paper decided to run pictures of pets instead.
Well… not for long. From what information I could gather, the paper got screwed by someone that had advertised then refused to pay the two grand for the ads. It folded at the end of the semester, and last I heard the guys who ran the paper sold all of the equipment on eBay.
Eight years later, and I’m still writing. I’ve found my style and voice, thankfully. I’ve long since left college behind and have moved onto the real world with its fun and frivolity.
And yet… and yet I still remember those simpler times and look back with a sense of nostalgia. In a period of time in my life when few things made sense, this was… fun.
Out.
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