October 15, 2021
Dear Reader,
Hey. It’s us. You might be wondering how we got here. Cue the iMovie song intro music.
If you’re holding this paper in your hands, congratulations! You are one of the first people to hold a print copy of the Bi-Line in over a year and a half. Coming back from the last year of virtual articles and online editions, it might be hard for you to remember what the Bi-Line actually is or what purpose it serves. Or maybe you don’t care at all about the paper and are just looking for a light read to distract yourself before Fall Break. Whatever the case, welcome! We are very happy you are reading our paper right now.
Now, enough about the paper’s return– back to us. Our names are Khushi Niyyar and Noah Turbes, but you could also refer to us as DJ Khush Dawg and NT Hammer. But please don’t. In ninth grade, Khushi was too busy overusing semicolons and pursuing her foolish aspirations of becoming the next girl in STEM, so she wasn’t even a part of the Bi-Line. As a freshman, however, Noah sought to follow in his sister’s footsteps as a member of the Bi-Line early on in ninth grade and soon found he possessed the most potential of the Turbes kids. He found himself featured on the front page with the Black History Month assembly article and took his writing to new heights the next year. In 10th grade, teamed up with none other than the OG Khushi, the two crafted sensational sports and noteworthy news articles all year long. As juniors, we solidified our positions as the class of 2022’s frontrunners for good American reporting as editors. Come the fall of 2021, we’re the editors-in-chief. It has been a long journey, filled with awkward interviews and early morning meetings, but we made it. We’re here, and now, on a more serious note, ready to use our platforms to make the Bi-Line the best it has ever been. We want to pioneer the Bi-Line into something better than ever. These aren’t empty claims either; we’ve been putting in work. We have deliberated with Dr. Combest and consulted with editors and reporters to settle on the Bi-Line as not merely the most famous Westminster publication ever, but your paper, the voice of the students.
As we look down the line of the past Bi-Line head editors (Avatar style), our ancestors even, we see Tara Subramaniam’s words, “Fall is a period of transition.” We transition not only in our title from last year, but in the actual paper too. As you could probably gather, the Bi-Line is in print this year. Whether or not you noticed that you never saw the Bi-Line scattered around the school last year is not the important part. What is important is that you’re holding this right now, feeling the physical embodiment of the Westminster student voices. Student voices. Fifty-seven of us make this paper what you’re reading now. James Rhee’s creativity in thinking up new article ideas helped make the Sports section. Norah Lascar’s effort working with reporters since the start of September helped formulate the Arts section. Nishka Bahl learned about the horrors of InDesign when she worked to organize the News front page. Sophia Rackliffe’s humor helped create the Opinions pieces. Diane Chen worked with photographers to snap the perfect pictures of students and buildings around campus (because apparently it is iLlEgAl to copy photos off the internet and pass them off as your own). To every writer, photographer, and editor who helped the Bi-Line go from a mess of ideas to a full-print paper, thank you. We literally could not have done it without you.
As your new head editors, we hope to make this transition as seamless as possible for you. If you have any questions or want to write an opinion piece as a guest columnist, please contact us at [email protected] and [email protected]. Also, we encourage letters to the editors this year, so if something in an article or opinion piece sparks your interest, consider writing a response and sending it to us. We would love to hear from you!
Love,
Your Head Editors,
Khushi Niyyar and Noah Turbes
