With the academic year drawing to a close, comes a similar ending to my time as the Lifestyle Editor at Concrete. And what a year it has been!
I remember getting the email that I I’d been asked in for an interview, conducted from the bedroom of the AirBnB I was sharing with several friends in a port-village in Scotland next to a sleeping friend (who revealed, after the Co-EiCs Eve and Matthew had hung up, that she had, in fact, been awake the whole time and eavesdropping). I’d always wanted to get more involved in the university community, especially as my first and second years had largely been absent of society extracurriculars. The idea that I’d be able to run my own section was a new, exciting opportunity—and one I have found a particular love and passion for.
As someone who loves a video essay and spends most of her time deep-diving the abundance of microtrends across the Internet, Lifestyle has been a perfect place to discuss a multitude of varied interests, from ‘girl dinner’ to sex positivity to dressing up for Halloween! Moreover, it has been beyond a privilege to receive external pitches from people willing to write about their own personal interests, such as female body hair, the experience of being on birth control, and plastic surgery. Over the year, I believe Lifestyle has become a place of discussion and openness, where any and everything can be written about in a judgment-free way, and it has been so exciting and wonderful to see how many people were willing to contribute to it—to the point where almost every edition has had a surplus of potential articles! Not to ignore the wonderful work of Concrete’s Agony Aunt Jadyn, whose kind, thoughtful, witty advice in Anne Glia has been the cornerstone of every edition. Together, we’ve made a pretty great team, if I do say so myself.
As a third-year English and Creative Writing student, it can be pretty scary thinking about what I want to do with my future. I’ve always loved writing, and I’ve always loved reading, and the dream is to hopefully turn either (or both!) of those passions into a career. But my time at Concrete has opened my eyes to other new potential avenues: writing articles for local publications; getting involved with the more editorial side of things; devising new exciting ideas and pitches. It’s taught me time management, organisation, creativity on a deadline, and wrangling the beast that is InDesign on the SU’s old desktop Macs. More importantly, being involved with Concrete has also brought me many wonderful friends. I’ve been so fortunate to have such a wonderful team this year, and I can’t express how grateful I am to have been a part of something so lovely.
Image: Concrete/Innes Henry
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