By Maya Menashe, Managing Editor
If you had told me two years ago that I would become the Managing Editor of the YU Observer, I probably would have laughed and said something like, “I highly doubt that, maybe in another lifetime.”
I did not really care about writing back then. The only time I cared about writing was when I wrote in my notes app and wanted my future self to remember something. When I did write formally, it would be for the courses I had to take, only to meet the criteria my teachers graded on, earn a good grade and move on. I always loved developing new ideas and drafting them, but that love was overshadowed by extensive assignment requirements, and therefore writing used to stress me out. Ironically, now it is one of the things I do to calm me down.
In all honesty, the real reason I selfishly applied to be a staff writer for the YU Observer was to improve my essays for class. My weak point was turning my ideas into cohesive sentences and synthesizing them into a central point. I knew the staff would help me develop as a writer. I didn’t really care about anything else.
But as time passed, and as I became a Science and Technology Editor, and then Senior Science and Technology Editor, and finally Managing Editor, I realized a few things. I understood that The YU Observer is a team of like-minded people who genuinely care about each other’s diverse ideas and want everyone to grow as writers. But more importantly, I understood something about writing itself.
Paintings communicate through creative elements but lack words, while speeches communicate through words but are constrained by time and tone. You can view and study a masterpiece painted by a world-renowned artist, and you can listen to and absorb the most articulate speaker deliver a TED Talk you will remember forever, but simply because of the nature of each medium, they will never communicate an idea, lesson, or emotion as deeply and as enduringly as writing. Writing combines the creativity of art with the precision of language, which makes it versatile: some people connect more with the creative part and others with the words themselves. It reaches a larger audience, and it lands a point more clearly than either painting or speech can alone.
One of my favorite classes at Stern was a 9 AM Honors literature course taught by Dr. Trapedo, a course completely outside my major. If you had told that same version of me, the one who dreaded every essay, that this would be one of the most impactful classes I took, I wouldn’t have believed you. The course, named Jews in Western Literature, examined the diction used in various pieces of literature to represent Jews across classical and contemporary literature. Dr. Trapedo showed me that how you convey a message is just as important as the message itself. Literature can be interpreted in countless ways, just as there are countless ways to express an idea. The ability to shape language with intention is one of the most important parts of delivering that idea, which can most easily be accomplished through writing.
Learning to write is writing to learn. Every time you write a new piece, for your enjoyment or for an assignment, you are learning in the process. You are researching a topic to better solidify your opinion, experimenting so you can type up a lab report, sitting with your thoughts long enough to understand what you are actually trying to say. Sometimes you don’t know where your first words are going to lead you, and if you thought you did, you are often wrong by the end. Writing teaches you to gather every input of information, process it like a computer, and output your own unique message and writing style. Your pen or keyboard leads your mind without even realizing it.
Even after two years, I still don’t quite believe that I am Managing Editor of a newspaper. But Emily Goldberg, Shira Kramer and Esti DeAngelis, Dr. Trapedo, and every English teacher and professor I have had believed in me before I believed in myself. They taught me that intentional writing is a skill worth spending a lifetime to become better at. Because of these amazing individuals, my appreciation for writing has grown far beyond the classroom.
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