Letters from the Editors, in journalism and Rivalry

Dear Reader,

My shoes were absolutely killing me. Having just walked what Google Maps predicted as a 24 minute walk from 45th down to 32nd in a time of just seven minutes, I caught the 6:04 p.m. train from Penn Station back to Princeton Junction on the infamous NJT. I was positive that I had just burned the soles of my feet Additionally, the fact that I wasn't able to snatch a seat on the hour or so ride back only made my feet hurt more. Exhausted and in pain, having already been up for twelve hours by now, I hope you can understand a little bit of my pis.sy mood. Scrolling Instagram reels to get a dopamine rush, I only got more annoyed when a notification suddenly popped up at the top of my screen.

Exiting Instagrarn to check what the notification was about, I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a text from Yoonsa, a former Managing Editor of the Deerfield Scroll. After catch-ing up on how our summers have been, mine dominated by work and college essays and hers filled with vacations with friends, she revealed the real reason she wanted to talk. Texting furiously; she explained that a close friend of hers was the Editor-in-Chief of The Choate News and wanted to collaborate with the Deerfield Scroll on an issue in the upcoming year.

After I saw this text, my mood died down as quickly as it rose. My knee- jerk reaction was instantly no. Collaborate with Choate? Did the sky tum red? At the time, the idea seemed as utterly preposterous to me as Chloe's comment that there would be a day in Senior Fall when I would need to drink 400 mg in a day to finish my college essays arose. After all, I had always thought of Choate as a rivalworking together just never seemed a possibility. Not wanting to burst Yoonsas bubble however, I gave her an incondusive answer of"we'll see what we can do," and just put this idea in the back of my mind, which was soon replaced by the cash flow model I had to finish before work the next day.

So why are you reading this issue?

First, as Scroll Advisor Mr. Romick pointed out, "it's for the love of the game'.' But in all seriousness, it's because I think, as a community, it is precisely what we need right now: a renaissance of student journalism. After connecting with former Editor-in-Chiefs of the Scroll for their reflections on how their Scroll experience has later benefited them in their lives, including Anna, Kaitlyn, Sunshine, and Joshua, the common thread they all mentioned wasn't actually about journalism. Rather, the words community, curiosity, commitment, and collaboration were echoed by them all In an increasingly polarized society-especially on where journalists around the world are under attack- student journalism can be an answer to a lot of the problems we face.

Freeing myself fium my narrowmindedness in August has also allowed me to see clearly what I couldn't see back then. The Scrolls collaboration with The Choate News transcends whatever emphasis we place on our elite, small school rivalry. Rather, it is a celebration of two long-standing institutions, one in its centennial and the other way past, devoted to fostering the next generation of journalists, writers, thinkers, and leaders. And now, more than ever, the Deerfield Scroll and The Choate News depend on you, students, to preserve and carry on the legacy of our publications through your writing and editing. So I encourage you to read, to write, to listen, and to learn. Deerfield students, take a moment to flip through these pages and appreciate what The Choate News has to offer. Choate students, I invite you to do the same. Through reading these pages, I hope you realize that in spite of our rivalry and our differences, we are a lot more of the same.

Yours in Service,

John Qi Liu