Welcome Back 2 School: An Editor’s Letter
On learning and schooling as The Interlude enters its sophomore year.
New jeans. Unexpected haircuts. The shrieks and shouts as friends reunite after a summer apart. There are many ways to mark the start of a new school year. Maybe you get the “Sunday scaries” for the entire month of August or spend hours scrolling through social media to like everyone’s #LastFirstDay posts. Maybe you graduated years ago, but keep in touch with your favorite educators. Maybe podcasts and YouTube tutorials comprise your ongoing education efforts.
As far as life at The Interlude goes, we’re overjoyed to continue learning! With one year down and plenty more to go, this publication remains a place for new writers and artists to create meaningful projects, take risks, and forge new paths. That mission is especially evident in our latest collection of stories focused on learning and lessons happening within and beyond the classroom.
Our Back 2 School stories are ripe with new information, refreshing insight, unwavering honesty, and a little nostalgia about the ways education impacts countless communities. And yes, we absolutely took a page from The Fast and The Furious’ notebook for the title to this thrilling sequel.
You’ll notice illustrations as crisp and visually delicious as autumnal apples accompany these stories. The early computer aesthetic we chose recalls the massive and rapid transformation of educational tools since the 2000s — from rickety overhead projectors to interactive whiteboards to pandemic-induced Zoom classes. As millions of students face in-person schooling this fall and others readjust to pre-pandemic workloads (despite still being in a pandemic), our art team has captured the spirit of yet another major life transition.
While you look forward to our second round of school stories, keep in mind everything you read at The Interlude is, in one way or another, about education. Our writers consistently bring unique experiences and knowledge to this publication, whether they’re investigating power imbalances, providing cultural criticism, reviewing the latest lifestyle trends, or sharing deeply personal stories. It brings me immense joy to witness their growth, both as journalists and people who learn more every day in this vast and precious world we call home.
Learning is a lifelong pursuit at The Interlude, and we hope you’ll join us in it.
— Maggie Chirdo, Co-EIC
Please send any tips, questions, and comments to interludeeditors@gmail.com.
