Issue 17 | Creative Director's Letter
Via Strike Magazine Tallahassee Issue 17, Best for Last
There’s something special about final moments—their impending loom over one’s head, their refusal to be ignored, followed by a swinging pendulum of nostalgia or eminence. Even in the heap of the journey’s end, on that last display of crowning glory, whether it concludes with tears or smiles, we put everything out on the line until the curtain closes on us. We feel called to offer up our best one last time, demanding presence rather than spectacle. We do it to celebrate people, moments, and dreams that have guided us on the road to getting where we stand now. We do it in the absence of regret. We do it in commemoration, appreciating all we have built in the hope of replicating the years' worth of joy, strife, and gratitude in the exact way they were felt one final time.
Four years, eight issues (two as creative director), and some thousand pages. I’ve spent so much of my time at Florida State living, breathing, and exuding Strike. And in the course? Co-collaborators became my friends, and those friends became my family. Shoot days gifted me my fondest memories, and what was once a passion reintroduced itself as purpose, evolving into the ever-present spark I can’t seem to live without. Hence, I find myself choking up while writing this goodbye.
But remember what I said about final moments? There’s an all-consuming tendency to preserve them, wrap them up in plastic, and capture the lasting embrace of their merit. Well, if you consider it, the disposed feeling of the experience, as it relates to closing chapters–and magazines, especially the nation’s largest student-run magazine like the one you hold in your hand–is something of an honor of one’s accomplishments. It is a reminder of our time here. This happened. Take the last act as one grandiose thank you. After all, when have we ever been known to be subtle? Enter the theme for this issue.
Thank you to all of our directors, staff, my dedicated shoot team, and our models– the many hundreds of you. You each have contributed a unique viewpoint or skill set that has made this magazine whole. The creative community you foster is, and forever will be, the thing I love most about Strike.
To my assistants, Lauren, Marcela, and Julia, I couldn’t be prouder of you or the dedication you’ve shown this semester. It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with you, and an even greater honor seeing our bonds transcend the professional realm into several cherished friendships.
To my family and friends, who have provided me with enough love and support to last a lifetime, thanks are due a million times over.
To our Editor-in-Chief, my creative partner and best friend, Isabel Choi, I have you to thank most of all. Together you and I have weathered curses, cancellations, all-nighters, damn-near trespassing charges, and now two matching tattoos honoring this collection of paper and ink. Our pursuits have landed us in untold, unseemly, and unregrettable places, but the results have always spoken for themselves. I truly believe we were fated to meet, and I cannot wait to see what’s in store for you next.
As such: Issue 17–The Best for Last Issue. Not a clapping-back retrospective. Not a “remember how it used to be” effort. Not a wary or uncompassionate take on life, college, holding on, moving up, or even magazines, but a first-class embrace of the experience that is to be cherished. For the end is only as good as what we make of it, and (as we love to say) why not choose to go out with a bang?
For the last time….
Strike Out,
Ella
