It’s interesting the thoughts you have when you reflect upon the previous years of your life. Whatever time period, reflections are like memories in a tide pool. When we come to the point of reminiscing, it’s as if we are looking into the water at our own reflection noticing the minute details that possibly we never glanced upon before.

From the letters I’ve received from my brother in boot camp, it seems he has done a lot of reminiscing. He has mentioned to me a few times that he can remember playing Megazeux and putting on “shows” which where a child’s version of Broadway plays. Sure, we had our times to grovel over stupid things like passing the remote or petty arguments which now are forgotten. These kinds of conflicts in our lives, whether they be with siblings or parents smooth themselves over, much like pebbles in a pond. Over time from sitting there they are smoothed over and their texture — what once was rough is now smooth. Most importantly when one takes the time to remember their past — inadvertedly they remember themselves.

Having worked as Graphics Editor for a local community college a few years back I learned the importance of effective collaboration. Often, with best intentions, editors of various publications can get sidetracked by cut-throat competitiveness which is the result of creating something unique without infringing on one’s own creativity.

Despite this, the staff that I was fortunate to work with remained open-minded and collaborative. I worked as Graphics Editor for 3 years and saw my share of talented individuals — among them fluent writers, brilliant artists and tech-savvy layout editors. Their talents shined from story to copy editing to print, wherein the staff of layout technicians (or artists as I referred to them) would utilize Quark XPress to layout the Viewpoints paper.

On occassion we would meet with the Editor-in-Chief, who admittedly seemed somewhat adverse towards changing the format. His ideals instead remained focused on creating an award-winning newspaper knowing that the design and content both led to its success.

Much remains the same for the Internet. Informative and intriguing content with a pleasant and equally intriguing design creates a successful marriage of a well-developed and thought out web site.