Fifteen Minutes: Editor's Note: Plan B

Just so you know, I am not one of those seniors who has no idea what she's doing next year. I have grand plans for my future. Very exciting, very detailed plans. If only they weren't classified, I'd go into them here.

Nor am I the only student passing precious time concocting plans. Never before my arrival in Cambridge had I met so many who shared my obsession with lists, who also made lists of the lists they had to make. A year ago, visions of sugarplums dancing 'round in our heads, FM's executive board churned out sheets upon sheets of big ideas. JP was talking color. Alicia made posters outlining a new set of deadlines. Aaron carried a clear plastic briefcase crammed with schedules, and Anna and I spent 15 straight hours attempting to revive Groovy Train in one fell swoop.

Yet at this, the hour of our penultimate issue, our magazine is black-and-white. Its creation disregarded any and all deadlines or schedules. Groovy Train died sometime last spring.

In fact, I must concede that most grand plans I've had simply haven't panned out. Of course, that doesn't make me reconsider my elaborate plotting. Not until the moment has passed can I accept that a plan was never going to leave its paper. Likewise, I'll bet it takes the five of us until our final closeout to admit (despite all the evidence) that the rigid guidelines we designed last winter were simply not meant to be. I, for one, am still holding out hope that next week's issue came in two weeks ago.

But there are plans and there are plans. And then there are the plans that materialize. This issue showcases a first-year who actually transformed his dorm room into Pooh Corner, five characters actually running for U.C. president and an intrepid reporter who actually attended 15 parties in one short night. This magazine has actually come out 22 times in the last year.

It's amazing when you think about it.

And met deadlines or no, with or without color, there's not much more I could have asked for from FM than the ability to look back and be glad to have done what I did. And I am. And I can only hope my grand plans for the future fail so well. Because as much fun as I trust you've had reading FM this past year, I can assure you that ARC, AMD, JSP, AMSM and I have had that much more planning it.