Dear Readers,
From all of the summers I remember, this one has definitely felt different. After all, this is the first summer that I have lived away from home, the first summer where my nine to five job has actually felt like something more than a paycheck and the first summer in a while that I’ve made more memories than I can readily recall.
I have always looked forward to the freedom and seemingly endless time that summers bring. As a kid, late July and early August days were filled with almost daily visits to my grandparents’ house or spent traveling to every playground within a 10-mile radius of my house — an adventure my dad aptly deemed “park hopping.”
But as summers came and went, days spent manning driveway lemonade stands with my sister for little profit became working summer jobs to build a savings account before my first year of college.
And while I remember those days fondly, and sometimes long to go back to nights of catching fireflies in jam jars, they remind me of not only how much I have grown as a person, but also of how much I am still that little girl pumping her legs on the swing set in hopes of inching the tiniest bit higher than her sister.
Golden Hour, much like its sister, About Time, sees time as an entity. While About Time focused on the present moment of time, Golden Hour leans into moments that we miss before they happen. Ones that we wish we could get back and hold onto for the rest of our lives; it focuses on the lessons of the past and how we can bring them into the future.
Yes, that notion may seem a bit romantic on the surface, but I firmly believe that it’s important to look back on where we’ve been as we continue to forge a path to where we are going. Time has a way of lingering and teaching us how to better ourselves and the world around us, and the stories of Golden Hour take that idea in stride.
The process of how memories are made and stored in our minds directly impacts how we think about and reflect on summers spent with family and friends, how we experience once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, and everything in between.
Even as the sun sets on summer 2022, this zine asks us to think about endings not as chapters closing, but as new beginnings. What will I remember about today when I look back on it one year from now? Five years? Ten years?
As I leave you to enjoy Golden Hour, I hope you are left with an appreciation of time and the impact that it has on your life. Promises made but never kept, little moments of laughter, catching fireflies in jars; we all have memories that hold a special place in our hearts. And if we have done our jobs as a Marquette Journal and Marquette Wire staff, these stories will bring those to the surface.
To every reporter, editor, photographer and designer on Golden Hour: From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all of the hard work and dedication that you put into making this zine a reality. I am beyond proud of the product we have created; it has turned out better than I could have ever imagined.
To Nora, Anna and Katie: Thank you for being the greatest roommates and second family I could ever ask for. You lovely ladies were one of my only sources of sanity in the madness that was this summer and I am so grateful to have the three of you in my life as we head into our senior year.
Thank you all for reading!
Sincerely,
