Last Note from the Editor-In-Chief of 2014

Written by Amanda Lee Yue Ping, Junior 2 Cempaka, Class of 2014

Have you ever heard the phrase “throw a stone in the middle of a crowd, and chances are you’ll hit a datuk?”

Well if you throw a stone into our schooling community, 99% chances are you’ll hit someone who doesn’t know what the Lumen Student is, sadly. Or so it seems like it. Especially looking at the attendance during meetings. We once got questioned on twitter, what is the Lumen? I can think of numerous ways to answer that question. 

We are this online newsletter. With minimum contributions from the student community, all articles you see are almost 99% by force, the other 1% a happy accident. 

We try our utmost best to cover the 101 school activities in Cempaka. Or at least we try our best to cover them interestingly - there are only so many times you want to hear about the whole five days of Games Carnival, or the exact details of each and every poem recited during English Games. We run on nonexistent deadlines, iPhone-quality pictures and our Whatsapp group chat which sometimes make me feel like I’m talking to a wall.

Our editors write more than they edit. Or at least, they write, then edit each other’s articles. Our VLE page proudly says 210 members, but I can count the number of active members on one hand, all of which whom are editors. We are pros at persuasion, coercion and ruthlessly cutting down the number of words in an article, knowing that people rather see pictures than read text. (In fact, I don’t even know how many of you will make it through to the end of this article, but please bear with us)

We follow more people than we have followers on Twitter. We shamelessly advertise, we crave retweets (even though we sometimes question them - an article on Prom got more retweets than an article on MH17..) and idolize the comments we get. A simple “nice article” always makes our day.

Knowing all this, would I call being an editor a thankless job? Well, whenever I’m near thinking along that train of thought, I stop and look through the replies we get on twitter, all the popular articles we have - Goodbye Damansara still remains as the most viewed article at 2000+ (yes that was a shameless bit of advertising right there) and how far we’ve come since Dr. Rizal’s brainchild of changing the Lumen. 

“If you throw a stone into our schooling community, 99% chances are you’ll hit someone who doesn’t know what the Lumen Student is, sadly.”

You know that? That was perhaps at the beginning of the year. But when you throw the stone now, maybe, just maybe. Someone will throw it back and say “you mean Lumen StuDET right?” 

With 70000 views under our belt in the past year, I am so thankful to each and every single member of the YJC board of how far we’ve come. And how far they will continue to go. To my mentor, Jamie, thank you for putting Lumen on the map, and for making us who we are today. 

To say there is no where else to go but forwards from here on, is a bit optimistic. There will still be dry spells. There will still be days where the views curve downwards, mirroring your sad face. But I can assure you, there will be greater days ahead as well.

The Editorial Board of 2015!

Thank you to the dedicated team of designers, for their lovely designs which never fail to brighten up the lumen. 

The photographers for their not-always-punctually sent but still rad photographs. You’re one of the reasons people even click the link in the first place.

The writers, for your timely contributions be it by force or not.

The editors, Wye Mun & Valerie for your dedication and usually last-minute work that somehow or other always miraculously pulls off in the end, saving the day.

And at last, to my dear, dear readers. You may be far and few in between, but I know you’re out there, the views chart tells me so and if anything, I believe in that. 

It has been a privilege to write for you.

Much love, from your Editorial Board of 2014 (Missing Chua Zi)