As the days grow longer and the air grows warmer, something visibly changes within both the city and the school. Excited comments surrounding the weather diffuse through the halls, and shorts make an appearance on forty degree days as we all stretch to enjoy any fragment of warmth that we can.

There’s a noticeable shift, both in the appearance of our town and in the attitude of those that inhabit it, that comes at this time of year. The air seems fresher, the step lighter, and invigoration fills our souls. In other words, spring is in the air. For most, spring symbolizes new life as leaves and flowers being to grow and winter gloom fades, replaced instead by tangible spring happiness.

For us here at The Central Trend, however, spring brings more than just the promise of warmth and fresh air. The changes in our surroundings indicate the beginning of an annual trek we begin to produce a physical tribute to the senior class and its legacy, accurately dubbed The Senior Edition.

This magazine, distributed for free to the entire school during the seniors’ last week of school, takes hundreds of hours of work from our staff to execute each year. But there’s an associated sense of accomplishment and pride that TCT staff holds at being able to provide this to the community each year.

Veteran staff members have contributed to every edition, but this year holds a special value to us because it’s the four editors’ senior year as well. The 2019 edition holds a special place in Reena, Susannah, Molly, and I’s hearts, so now, it begins.

We began training staff in the ways of Indesign, the Adobe software program we use to craft The Senior Edition, back in February. But as the May 1 deadline for seniors to commit to a college approaches, the work really begins.

At 32 pages long, TCT strivers to honor the senior class by including as many names and faces in the magazine as possible, highlighting the achievements, awards, and incredible plans for the future that the seniors hold. From pages honoring artists to top academic students, to athletes, to military recruits, to the infamous, comprehensive map and web; there’s truly something for everyone.

Our philosophy is that there are 315 students in the senior class, each of them individualistic, holding differing qualities and talents, and ready to offer something important and distinctive to the world. In this spirit, we take The Senior Edition seriously, gathering information and interviews just like we would any other story.

To tackle this, we split the process up into several stages, each staff member putting in work to bring their pages to completion. An astounding fact is that all staff members still post on the website at a normal schedule, allowing TCT to still publish fifty stories every two weeks.

The weeks immediately following our return from spring break will undoubtedly be the most hectic our staff has seen thus far this year. But walking into first hour on distribution day and seeing every single student in school excitedly reading The Senior Edition from cover to cover makes all of the work nothing but worth it.