Dear Readers, 

It feels strange that our sixth semester working on the Observer is coming to an end. Four years ago, we stumbled into the MAB Lab for the first time, unaware that this magazine and the people surrounding it would become such an integral part of our lives. Neither of us had ever used Adobe software in our lives—how had we made it onto the design team? We felt like imposters. As it turns out, that feeling never fully goes away. 

Now we sit here as Creative Directors, in these same blue plastic chairs, and we are different people. Some part of us will probably always feel like those scared little freshmen, but looking back, we’ve grown so much.

Writing this letter, reflecting on how far we’ve come and thinking about what is next, it’s hard not to feel that doubt creep in again. For all the time we’ve spent on staff, we’ve never seen our own words appear in print. Our names appear in design credits, not bylines. So dear readers, bear with us, it is once again our first time doing something that is a little bit scary.

These past years have been many things. It’s been long nights and early mornings. It’s been napping on the MAB Lab floor one moment and vigorously jigging to “Kingdom Dance” from Tangled the next. It’s been arguing over how to pronounce Behance (it’s bee-hance, for the record) and laughing over stupid Adobe memes. It’s been the feeling of awe at seeing what our designers create time and time again. It’s been the feeling of touching those pages in print and thinking we made something beautiful. 

Flip through any issue from the past four years and you’ll see a little bit of us in those pages. Every designer leaves a trace (Sofia loves a gradient; Brenna can’t help but color block). To us, that will always be special; seeing a page and knowing the person behind it. 

What else is there to say but thank you? Thank you to our team of designers and artists, who continue to amaze us every day. Thank you to Josie and Amanda, who have been our editors and our friends. We would not want to watch the sunrise over Curtis Hall with anyone else. And finally, thank you to anyone who takes the time to pick up this magazine, even if it’s just to briefly flip through the pages. We’ve had a wonderful time.

All our love,

Sofia and Brenna