The Circuit: Rites of Passage
Feature
Walla Walla’s birth workers provide support and care during the transition to parenthood by Renny Acheson
Do you ever feel lonely? And other questions about adulthood by Bhavesh Gulrajani
Examining the future of Greek life at Whitman by Allie Cohen
Delights by Rosa Woolsey
Opinion
The right to our identity: Creating community among first-generation students by Kasey Moulton
The three C’s of cinema: Why college movie nights are our most important form of gathering by Zac Bentz
Living on your own: Cooking as a rite of passage, and the case for eating bison by Mo Dow
What if our ‘rites of passage’ are wrong for some? by Jaime Fields
Photo Essays
An ode to the Walla Walla Valley by Nathaniel Martin
See you on the road, Walla Walla by Ella Meyers
Video Essay
Springtime in Walla Walla by Isabella Buchter and Elea Besse
Humor
First dates for seniors by Madeline Kemp
The mythic tale of the Whitman tree climber: A true history by Conor Bartol
Reclaiming the narrative: Peeing outdoors as a woman by Rachel Husband
So you’ve finished your first real semester at Whitman—have you checked all the boxes? by Lee Thomas
From Baja Blasts to “Smash” Burgers: An introspective analysis of local fast-food aphrodisiacs by Sam Huston
“They’ll never know” comic series by Shasta Sholes
Illustrated Essay
Learning to serve tea my final semester by Jessie Brandt
From The Wire‘s leadership:
At the end of the spring semester, the editorial board gathered to decide on a theme for our annual graduation-focused magazine, The Circuit. This year, the editors selected rites of passage.
Our college careers are marked by a series of such rites: we arrive on campus, declare our major, complete our finals, write our thesis and, when all is said and done, we graduate. We walk off the stage, clutching our diplomas and facing the future.
But being a Whitman student carries a multitude of other rites, not all of which are planned or expected. Here, in this issue of The Circuit, our writers have gathered a multitude of rites of passage for your personal perusal: birth, community, Greek life, fast food, first dates, movie nights, loneliness, mental health and illness, living alone and more. These stories mark and celebrate moments (of every size) in the lives of both the Whitman and the Walla Walla communities.
The Wire has also undergone a series of momentous transitions during the 2020-2021 academic year. When we were selected for the roles of Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, the newspaper had been online since March, when COVID-19 sent us all into a lockdown. In late July, it was announced that Whitman would continue to be fully remote due to a recent jump in case numbers.
With such a large portion of our student population not in Walla Walla, we decided to remain online only. We continued to publish on a weekly basis, but each week required that we learn and grow as individuals and as an organization to accommodate for the realities of the pandemic.
And then, with the college’s move to a hybrid learning model for the spring 2021 semester, we returned back to print. While we had worked to grow and cultivate our online readership, there’s something about holding a print copy in your hands that’s just different. And for our campus community, the printed edition of The Wire reminds us of our shared physical space. Living so entirely in the virtual world across this past year, we have all been craving these moments of the physical and tangible.
You can still find copies of our 12 issue print run on our newsstands in almost every campus building. You might even be able to snag a copy at Patiss. The Wire staff poured their time, energy and enthusiasm into each of these issues, and we’re proud of what we could accomplish.
We decided to publish The Circuit online only due to timing and accessibility, but the content is no less compelling. These reporters, columnists, editors, photographers, illustrators, copy editors and production associates have chosen to draw your attention to a series of rites through their chosen medium. We want to recognize all the hard work that went into these stories.
Alasdair Padman and Ella Meyers
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, 2020-2021
