Although working here has allowed me to grow so much personally and professionally, I treasure the relationships I have formed inside this office. People always say that your best friends are made at university, and although I hate clichés, the friends I’ve made at Perdeby have shown me that this is true. There’s nothing like being forced into a small room with a daunting deadline and dubious amounts of caffeine to create a life-long bond.
It’s difficult to imagine what next year will be like once I’ve left this all behind, and I’m sure that those of you who are preparing to finish your degrees feel the same way. I’ve always been a planner, and the thought of a blank canvas-like future terrifies me. It’s a little bit exciting, though. After the restriction of university timetables and assignments and exams, it’s refreshing to think of time as a sort of unlimited expanse in which you can build a future. Being a planner means that I have a bit of unhealthy obsession with time (I have more than one friend who tells me to be places half an hour later than I actually should be, so I’m there on time), so it’s been quite a struggle for me to stop worrying about it.
While I was thinking about what I would write about time for this editorial, a quote from William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury popped into my mind: “I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.
Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.”
I’m not quite ready to declare victory an illusion of philosophers and fools, but I do believe that it’s a lost cause to try to fight against time. Another cliché, but everything happens in its time, and now it’s time for Perdeby to welcome a new editor, Michal-Maré Linden. I know she’s going to do a great job, and I can’t wait to see how Perdeby flourishes under her.
I’ll say my official goodbye when we introduce the new editorial. In the meantime, I’m always available for cyberstalking if you’re worried you’ll miss me.
Love, Max
