Columns

In what might be indifference to many and joy to others, next week will be my final editorial, as I then move on from the position of editor. In my loose plan for this term, I'd planned this week's instalment to be a true mish-mash of assorted wisdom. True to form, I failed to come up with any.

So I guess instead I might switch this into a bit of an extended "positions vacant" ad, because the last thing I want is someone coming in and messing everything up. By the same token, I don't want anyone coming in and doing way better than I did and thereby making me look bad, so, y'know, if you're a bit of an overachiever you can skip on by.

This is a wonderfully unique job. I say "wonderfully unique" knowing that there's a lot of controversy amongst nerds as to whether than can be degrees of "uniqueness", but I say it makes for a pleasing composition. I go off on this tangent for a reason – it's the kind of job where you need to care about that sort of stuff. You need to care about a lot of stuff, in fact – about design, about current events, about the written word, but above all else, about university life. You need to be invested and involved, but be able to take a step back and form a somewhat objective view. You need to be assertive, but unfailingly polite. You need to be organised, juggling 32 pages of a puzzle each week, with the next few puzzles always on your mind. You need a lot of information that would generally be termed by most as "useless". You need to be able to write – and not just throw together an essay on a particular topic, but write about anything you can possibly imagine, because you're going to be called on to do an awful lot of it.

Not that I can do all of this perfectly. Not by a long shot.

But you, Future Canta Editor, will be amazing at it all, particularly if you're one of those overachievers who I told to skip on by (another good quality is being stubborn, so well done on that). You'll enjoy the periods of high intensity work, the equivalent of your worst university deadline repeated week after week, and not just creating work to be seen by one or two or five people, but rather thousands. You'll be an ace at balancing that high intensity with the immediate aftermath as, shell-shocked, you figure out what you're going to do about next week. You'll love all the incredible opportunities you'll have, and you'll have the spark and charisma to compose something witty, insightful, and brave – which student journalism ought to be.

You'll have the time of your life, doing something you'll never have the opportunity to do again, something that the vast majority of the population will never do. Something you'll remember until the end of your days.

So, Future Canta Editor. They'll be advertising soon – I'll make sure you read about it in more specific detail next week. I look forward to reading your words on this page come February next year.