Christopher Rush

Welcome back!  Your dreams, indeed, were your ticket out, but here we are together again, wouldn’t miss it.  How are we doing?  Same as always.  We are back in the saddle once again.  We have shaken off the dust, polished the fine silverware, and wound our pocketwatches for a new season.  How are you doing?

I know what you’re thinking: “Why?  You ended on top, masters of your field!  It ended so beautifully, so heartwarmingly optimistically — there’s no chance to be as great as it once was!”  Easy, now.  In a world in which Monty Python can reunite to sold-out shows, Rush can be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Batman is finally released in Blu-ray in its entirety (the Adam West version, of course), and Bob Seeger, AC/DC, U2, and Pink Floyd(!) can release new albums, surely we, too, are allowed to do something unexpected and unhoped for.

At the beginning of series two, I made a list (in approximately 28 seconds) of the various topics I wanted to write about, including every entry in the much-beloved “Forgotten Gems” series.  During series two and three, I wrote them all.  The journal and I accomplished everything we set out to do.  It was a rewarding yet tiring experience.  New opportunities came along, people grow old, things change, many factors that need not be enumerated here (or ever) … it was time for a break.

And yet here we are again.  Yes, despite the positive surprise occurrences mentioned above, the world is much different, darker, angrier, more confused place than it was when we left (a world in which the Forces of Darkness are met not by Armies of Light but by apologetic open letters), but what better reason to return and bring more hope back to a world that needs it so much?  We don’t have to be what we once were — we won’t even try.  We’ll just be who we are now, not trying to emulate ourselves or “the good ol’ days,” and see the world perhaps not as it is but as it should be, making Cervantes (O’Toole’s Cervantes, at least) proud as we go.

Reedeming Pandora is no longer an elective, and thus we will be different by necessity.  Instead of having the same core group of seniors contributing work each issue, we will expand our horizons and broaden our vision.  Most of the diverse selections will be the sundry projects from Honors English students, grades 10-12.  This relates to the general change of the Honors program in English: instead of having all Honors students do the same task each quarter, students are pursuing individually-tailored courses of study, what we’ve informally nicknamed “More Better Different.”  Along with this freedom comes a variety of ways students are proving their learning.  Some will be papers, some will be modified slideshows, some will be … I have no idea what some will be.  This is awfully exciting.  We are trying to bring that freshness into Redeeming Pandora.

True, this spontaneity may make it difficult to advertise what will occur from issue to issue, as even I don’t have much of a plan for what to write about, but as we like to say around the office, our motto at Summit is “Keepin’ it Fresh.”

As always, we will welcome the contributions of old friends (alumni), and perhaps we will see contributions by new friends (who may or not be alumni or even people who have never been to Summit).  Perhaps we will revisit some old series like Forgotten Gems, perhaps we will pay more attention to the world around us now.  We’ll find out together.  There are truly no lines on the horizons (other than the limitations of the printed page, of course).

One thing I do know, we will continue to bring laughter and warmth and hope to your lives and ours.  It’s not the time to give up and allow the darkness free reign over the world and our souls.

So buckle up, boys and girls!  The band is back together.  It’s Magic Time.

Cue the Collective Soul (believe me, it sounds better than it reads):

Welcome all, welcome all

Welcome all my friends.

Welcome all, welcome all

Welcome all again.

Welcome all, welcome all

Welcome all my friends.

Welcome all, welcome all

Welcome all again.

Welcome all again

Welcome all again

Welcome all again

Welcome all again!