Tom Krivak
Stroud Courier Alumni, Class of 2007
A little more than 20 years ago, I stepped foot into the Courier office for the first time.
In the “early aughts,” the office had these transparent, brightly colored iMacs as well as a collection of multiple disjointed tables of various heights scattered around the circumference of the room, with chairs of mismatched shapes and styles dotting the floor plan.
If memory serves me correctly, we also had a copy of the AP Style Guide lying around somewhere, and although the office contained both a whiteboard and a cork board, we may or may not have written login credentials to various sites on the wall with a Sharpie.
Between the hours spent learning Adobe InDesign and reviewing the various articles that came in for submission (sometimes we’d even get one or two that arrived before deadline!), our group wrote, edited and published things that I can still say I’m proud of.
I’m an elder millennial, so in addition to my PDF copies, I still have my physical print editions packed away in a box, tucked away safely on a shelf in my home office.
I have an almost immeasurable number of memories from events that had occurred within that small room, tucked away in a corner of the second floor of the Union, where craning your neck near the window could kinda-maybe-sorta get you a vantage point to see if there was a line or not to get into the cafeteria.
Handy information when you were wrapping up a layout, design and publication session on a Tuesday-night-turned-early-Wednesday-morning, an hour or so before the first rays of the sun were visible.
Even now — two decades later — I can still feel my inner rage reaching a crescendo as I recall my hands-to-keyboard rhythm as I documented my rant against campus administration for considering my toaster an “illegal open flame device” as per my washed-out, yellow “Judicial Affairs Notice” in November of 2005 (I did get my toaster back, but I never received a formal apology. Can’t win ‘em all, I suppose).
My Junior and Senior years, I spent virtually every Tuesday night of my life in that office. Between the late-night Wawa runs, the push to finish our assigned stories, the hours upon hours of adjusting visual elements and tweaking layouts, as well as the everyday “stuff” that was needed for college life in general, having a carved-out time every week with the same people to accomplish a shared goal was more therapeutic than I ever could have imagined.
In one of life’s happy surprises, our group became very close-knit, and even today, as we’ve all navigated post-graduation life in our own way, we remain in contact with each other, share life updates and celebrate each other’s wins. We even started a book club!
As it stands today, the existing student union is slated for demolition, and with it, that little office in the corner where we’ve made so many memories will soon exist only in our memories. So, we decided — as a group — to come and visit our space that served as a late-night muse one last time (while it’s still standing, at least), and wax poetic about the past while catching up with one another in-person for the first time in about 20 years.
It’ll be bittersweet for the building to be razed, but, as I’ve learned, change is inevitable, and there’s lots of positives to uncover as “the new” becomes “the new normal.”
If there’s a silver lining to the Courier office being torn down, it’s this: The new location for the paper will be larger and significantly more modern — not to mention more suitable for an online-first digital publication that exists without a print footprint.
In fact, I think the newest addition to the existing space might be the coffee maker I donated almost 20 years ago…although I think that my Mr. Coffee may have lasted two, maybe three weeks until we forgot to dump the grounds and empty the carafe after one of our layout nights…but I digress.
I’ve always struggled with writing conclusions and wrapping things up correctly, but it seems that, as a now-old-guy, I should attempt to share a lesson or two with anyone who reads this. I’ve been following John Perry Barlow’s Principles of Adult Behavior since I stumbled upon his list around 2010 or so, and although I won’t regurgitate his words, I’ll leave my ad hoc addendum here:
Take the cushions off, and lay life bare. Revel in the chaos of uncertainty. Be uncomfortable — and become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Never be performative. Actions have consequences.
Remain just; speak truth to power. Rally, forcefully, against hate and discrimination.
Most importantly, and above all else: Be kind.