The front page used to grab my attention with its eye-catching, colourful, and original design. It now lacks these qualities, and seems to remain constant as the weeks go by. The new three-row layout does no justice to the images it portrays, and the weeks just blend together. It’s difficult to identify the actual images and text that make up the front page without getting extremely close to the paper itself. It used to be that the front page could be seen from a mile away, and always grabbed my attention, especially since you started using colour.

I would always take notice of the Manitoban; it would be like a beacon in my life. Being an undergraduate, then graduate student here for the past eight years, I’m starting to feel as though my life is not changing and that I’ve been doing the same thing over and over again, always working on some project or some assignment that’s due yesterday. The days blend together; the weeks, months, years all combine into one hazy blur that is university life. There was one beacon in this haze that always made me stop, made me think about why I was still here – the Manitoban.

When your front page was as eye-catching as it was, I stopped, picked it up, leafed through it if only for a moment. I carried that newspaper the rest of the week, read the articles when I could no longer focus on my work. It was nice, but all good things must come to an end, I guess. The paper seems to always have the same front page, that format with its tiny images and drab colour scheme that make it difficult to distinguish one week from the next. Why take notice of something I’ve picked up and thoroughly digested before? I’m not saying you should change the front page format to what it used to be; instead I just want you to know the impact it had on me. It is something I will always remember about the university, a fond memory of a time that seemed to slip though my fingers. This new front page reminds me of life, nothing can remain constant, everything changes for the better or worse. I will eventually graduate for the third time, and move on with my life. I will turn the front page that is my life, only this time, I’ll be writing the stories.

Sincerely,

Cale Bergmann