As I walked across the stage of Centennial Hall and received my high school diploma more than two years ago, I looked out to a sea of onlookers and wondered, “”Where the hell do I go from here?””

The immediate answer was, down the stairs and back into my seat to wait until I could toss up my cap in celebration of total freedom from the shackles of adolescence. But that’s not the answer I was looking for. I knew that I was already on the campus of the university I’d be attending, but what was I going to study? What would my profession be after four years of college? What’s next for me in the game of life? I had more questions than Alex Trebek.

But someone once told me that IQ doesn’t matter so much as “”I will.”” Though I don’t 100 percent agree with that, there’s a half-truth to it. I remembered that and turned “”I will”” into “”I am.”” Just months after I peeled away that black graduation gown, I learned the answer to my question was journalism. Yes, journalism. With journalism, I could be nosy and creative and be called a good investigative reporter. I could be informative, which, in a sense, is helping others.

So I’d be a good Samaritan and get paid for doing so – put money in my pocket and a halo over my head. I’d get to meet interesting people and not-so-interesting people and let the public know what they think. But it wouldn’t stop there.

A journalist of any type is part-historian – documenting all of life’s happenings – and part-chemist – coming up with the perfect formula to keep the general public interested. I knew I wasn’t going to be just one thing. The combination was very attractive to me.

The Arizona Daily Wildcat was my entrance into the world of journalism. Now, after two years as a sports reporter and sports editor, I’m the editor-in-chief of your Summer Wildcat. Yes, yours. You see, every part of this newspaper belongs to you. It’s yours. Pick up a copy from the newsstand for free and take it home with you. Cuddle with it at night if you’d like. That’s the beauty of journalism and newspaper writing. It’s by the people and for the people.

Pretty American, huh?

Very American, actually. We live in a country based on democracy. Everyone works together, or at least that’s how it should be. Scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. So if the journalists didn’t work together to disseminate the news to you, the reader, how would know what you know?

The concept is the same even on our campus. My job is to make sure that everyone affiliated with the Wildcat helps deliver the best material possible. We want to keep you informed, entertained and if at all possible, simply blown away at our coverage each Wednesday that the Summer Wildcat is published, starting with this issue.

Sound too good to be true? Or maybe too cliché? It’s not. It’s journalism the way journalism should be. The Summer Wildcat welcomes you.

– Lance Madden is editor-in-chief of the Arizona Summer Wildcat