Hello, Welcome, Goodbye, Bon Voyage!

Issue 12, Semester 2, 2019

ANISHA THOMAS

Hello, welcome, goodbye, bon voyage! This is probably the least interesting article in this issue, but it’s important, as much as we can, to do justice to narrative arcs. This article pays homage to yet another year of this glorious crusty rag, stained by the fingers of curious/bored lunch-eaters on levels one through five. Every year, De Minimis sets out its humble practice, with a dedicated vision for the year. Kidding, that would be truly luxurious for us to do. The editors of De Minimis are more often than not haphazardly trying to put together something on a weekly schedule when most of its audience and writers would much rather study (you’re a law student, of course you’re a bit of a nerd—even if there’s a dearth of Instagram content involving artfully strewn textbooks amid half-drunk glasses of wine, save for Swotvac).

Illustration by Ying Wong

It’s my third year here (and my second one on De Min’s editorial board) and to be quite frank I’m constantly surprised that it keeps on chugging along. But I’m glad. Oh yes, I’m glad. Try to picture law school or your Facebook feed without De Minimis. OK, sure, it could be great for a second. However, I think any longer than that and we’ve stifled one of the only free platforms to rant and vent and CONNECT in a form that isn’t just memes (here’s looking at you, #mezzaMEMErs). Sure, we all could do without some of the shit comments. God knows we’ve tried—this year, we worked on policies for moderating the comments section, tried to moderate, tried to not moderate, tried to use another platform to help with the issue, decided to revert back to the one we’ve got because no one commented… At the end of the day, we found that overwhelmingly what draws you in to De Minimis is that you can say whatever the cluck you want on here... Of course, not everything can be published and not every comment can stay up (for good reason), but it’s refreshing to see more than one side of a debate, one kind of opinion, and one person on the soapbox. I hope that this variety remains in years to come.
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More than just #edgy opinions, we’ve loved having different kinds of articles on our pages. We’ve had poems (mostly haikus), classifieds, prose, playlists, crosswords, odes to coffee shops and more. We’ve discussed sexuality from a couple different lenses—about being a gay conservative, erasure of bisexuals, and unicorn hunting, to name a few. We’ve questioned the law school’s filling of seats, actions and inactions towards student complaints, transparency when it comes to our student groups, and also what’s the deal with the sk8rs? Next year, maybe we’ll have more memes, fetishes about furries (John Badgery, we saw that comment—write for us), murky bits that have the light shone on them, and longer poems.

You’re not here to read about how great we think we are, but I hope you see the value that De Min does bring, all things considered. With that, I hope you keep thumbing through, and even pick up the pen. We know you’re sticking around as long as you can (who even finishes in three years anymore?) and we want to stick around with you too. With that, we hope you enjoy the last issue of De Minimis for 2019.

Anisha is a Third Year JD Student and the 2019 De Minimis Editor in Chief.

Editor's Note: It's been fun! See you next year!