A special chapter of my life
Finding meaning in journalism
Levy Le–The Tech
I grew up a forgetful kid. I could not keep track of hats, water bottles, and books. My mind wandered a lot in school too: I dreamed of things but didn't have the means, knowledge, or intellect to make them happen.
Then, I found writing.
With a pencil and paper, I could let that wanderer in me manifest in words. I even turned it into a game by stringing together massive sentences (that were barely or not grammatically correct at all) as a way of pushing myself to think about language and what I could create — it was fun.
MIT seemed like the place where that fun would come to die. Fortunately, The Tech changed that. Well, kind of. My writing has gotten much drier, shriveled like a tomato left out in the sun for too long (but sun-dried tomatoes are still fire). I came to realize that fun encompasses things far beyond the scope of writing. I discovered what drive was, and what it means to be part of something so much bigger than myself.
I have shared these thoughts using similar terms during my Year-In-Review reflections as the V144 Editor-in-Chief and V143 News Editor, but my feelings remain the same for years since. There were a myriad of other things that I could have done at MIT. But I choose to be at The Tech and work alongside phenomenal, fascinating, and passionate people. There is joy and accomplishment alongside struggle and hardship, and we got to go through it together. I will always appreciate my colleagues for being vulnerable and honest about the complexities we navigated as young people in a world that is spinning a bit too fast.
I am not going to write a whole spiel about how we climbed out of operating in the red and were woefully understaffed. To this day, I am thankful to everyone who bought into our ethos when the going was tough. And with time, they made this paper their own. During this time, I also surprised myself with how badly I wanted to recruit new members despite not even having gotten a Brass Rat yet. Surely there was a hint of desperation, but I do think that was sheer drive.
Drive and creativity are uniquely human qualities, but are being harnessed by forces both good and evil. I worry about the future. In particular, I am a bit of an alarmist regarding AI: it distorts the truth, and it is horrible that very powerful people in this world are using it for manipulation and deceit. I hope that journalism, as we have done at The Tech, is a levee against tidal waves of misinformation and lies. Believe it or not, people will notice when good journalism is done. I am lucky to have been a part of several of these efforts, and it is the greatest feeling to work and edit those pieces at ungodly hours knowing that it can (and will) make a difference. I am proud that current editors and staff continue to ask hard questions about MIT and are stimulating debate within our community, from our students to the faculty and the highest echelons of Institute leadership. As student journalists, we are both blessed and cursed with the opportunity to grapple with these issues at such a young age, but the process makes us mature.
Being at The Tech was the defining experience of my time at MIT. Join up.