Tag: New School Year

Funnies for Fiction

Madison BP pic 2Before last year I had considered myself a fiction writer. A storyteller, maybe even a future novelist. I loved reading it and writing some of it but I never had the experienceof growth that  I did with other forms of writing. I’ve always felt like I’ve never progressed with my fiction. It’s almost as if I’m writing on the same level as I was in my freshman year. So, with the semester halfway over and my journey to fiction class is near I have decided to take a new approach to fiction writing. Funny.

I always find myself going back to the same topics when writing. Those include children, parenting and coming of age experiences. I try to make mental notes to myself to “change it up!” But it never really happens. But I feel that this year while in my fiction class I can take a humorous route. I enjoy reading funny stories that are light hearted and witty and I think there are plenty out there that still retain literary value in terms of style and technique. Sometimes people may fail to recognize a piece’s merit simply because of its subject matter.

So, with the new semester on the rise I have challenged myself. Create funny fiction. Whether it be about an awkward first date or a rain dance while making a pie in the kitchen, I’m going to make my stories funny.

-Madison George, Social Media Editor 

Do What You Love

Madison BP picGoing into this year I was extremely excited to get back into the swing of things. At the end of last year the staff had a really good routine of updating the blog, laying out the book and creating a brand for ourselves and was on the road to launch the new and improved Élan! I have to say that this year has been nothing but good. We have made goals for ourselves and now we are well on our way to accomplishing them. As a senior, I feel like that leaving the staff at the end of the year will be bittersweet. Of course it will sad to leave but I will feel very proud of what I am leaving behind.

Taking a lead in both Homecoming and Marketing this year has really inspired me to look into careers like Marketing and Public Relations as well as Event Planning. Mrs. Melanson always says that being on the Élan Staff is like having a job without getting a paycheck. But, being so heavily involved in the planning of Homecoming and really jumping into the Marketing process has made me reconsider my possible career choice.

Having marketing meetings, planning and executing our ideas is something that I look forward to and receive extreme satisfaction from. I get a little adrenaline rush when I get to sit down at a table with my agenda flipped to the notes section, my pen in hand.  I think that being on the staff has inspired me to do what I love and what makes me happy. I love the global idea of branding, planning, and being able to work in a team. I look forward to going to Élan and to pick up right where we left off the previous day. I feel that I accomplish a lot personally as well as working with the rest of the staff as a whole.  There is always a sense of true appreciation after leaving second period every day and it’s something that I am going to miss next year.

-Madison George, Social Media Editor  

Moving Forward

I’old-computerm seeing right down the barrel of InDesign already, even though the adulthood is in my peripheral vision. With a new year comes a new focus, and I couldn’t be more excited about taking the sole leadership in Élan’s Layout and Design editorial position. I wouldn’t feel as ready as I do now to fight the computer’s quirks and glitches, without the life lessons I learned from my former lead editor, Emily Leitch. I’m waiting to receive a successor of my own to continue the lovely tradition of “layout lessons.” It’s the feature that brings this staff together over the painstaking, sophisticated masterpiece that is Élan.

Last year, right at the final stage of the yearly print edition – the very last day of school – we lost our computer just as we hit save. It was probably the most tragic thing to ever happen all year. That computer was a real dinosaur, I’m sure you’ve seen one half its age at most. There’s no telling how much blood was shed from the nail biting minutes of anxious saving, how many tears fell from the disparity of a frozen screen, or the sweat drops that rolled down the furrowed ‘brow of the crazy-eyed perfectionist. That computer was the diabetic heartbeat of Élan for the first year of true continuity.

It will be greatly missed.

But this year, as I walk into the classroom empty handed, I am fully minded. I am going to do everything I know how to do to continue making our publication carry the inspirational individuality and professional beauty that our breathtaking art and writing are worthy of.

I’m here to show the world that Élan is not just an impressive magazine made in the corner of a library after school, but a true representation of the merit brilliant teenage artists deserve.

-Taylor Austell, Layout and Design Editor