Putting this magazine issue together made us realize how many of us are living in this strange in-between space. We are expected to be adults, planning our careers, paying bills, figuring out what comes after graduation.

College, by nature, is adulting with training wheels. It’s also the last time in a college student’s life that they’ll be grouped in the same place with their peers. We grew from kindergarten till now all bunched together. Watching the same shows, sharing the same memes, listening to the same music, really just experiencing the same things.

But a lot of the time we still feel like the kids who thought staying up past 10 P.M. was the peak of freedom. We keep finding ourselves looking back at the music, shows, and the chaos of the early 2000s, not just because of the fun, but because it reminds us of what we thought was a simpler version of life and myself.

When thinking up this magazine we thought, if this never happens again, being together like we all are now, well then let’s talk about it. Honestly, that part was really fun. Getting to talk to everyone working on this magazine, between ourselves, our writers, creative team, photo team, etc. It felt like a class trip down memory lane.

The more that we spoke with the staff, with our peers, with the Corvallis community, the more that we realized how shared this feeling is. We are all trying to balance responsibility and uncertainty while still wanting to hold onto the parts of childhood that made life lighter…humor, creativity, friendship, and the ability to laugh when things do not go as planned.

If we all experienced the same childhoods together, that means we’re experiencing modernity together too. Between rent bills, impending graduation, credit statements, trying to keep our head above water between classes, work, homework, exercise, social life, it becomes too much. We used to think keeping our tamagotchis alive was so hard but even just five minutes of our current day-to-day lives would send our childhood selves into a spiral. Can we really blame ourselves for re-watching Good Luck Charlie or jamming to One Direction every now and again? If it’s calming, it’s worth it.

Nostalgia is pretty powerful. The further down that lane we went with everybody, the more we realized that as adults (or, almost-adults) we don’t get as many excuses to be excited. Think about it, when we saw it raining outside as kids, we’d pretend we were the stars in a music video as we watched the raindrops fall down the car window from the backseat. Or, we’d have no problem dancing shamelessly around our room to the newest Katy Perry song, not a clue in the world as to what the dirty lyrics meant.

This magazine is really about those glitches, the mistakes, the awkward transitions, and the confusion. Because every student we talked to, is figuring things out as they go, even when it looks like they have everything together. We are all human, trying our best, and carrying pieces of who we were into who we are becoming.

In many ways, this issue is a sort of mission we’re assigning to our readers. Dance around the room, play in puddles, write a diary, and most importantly, live every day with the same kind of whimsy we had when we were young. Our adult lives can make joy and happiness look difficult, but we were hardwired to already have wonder inside of us. We’re just asking you to remember that.

Working on this issue reminded ourselves that growing up does not mean leaving childhood behind.

So whether you are reading this, procrastinating homework, waiting between classes, or avoiding a Canvas notification, we hope that you see yourself somewhere in these pages, and that it reminds you that none of us are navigating this adulting thing perfectly, and that is okay.

Here is to glitches and the memories we are making right now, and the ones we will be nostalgic for sooner than we think.