The other day, Ale and I received two ballcaps. Our former adviser Katharine Martin — or as many know her, KMart — found two Trinitonian hats from 2014 and sent them to us. What struck me wasn’t the high quality material, or that KMart still had some laying around, but it was the masthead: the name of our campus newspaper in its recognizable font, embroidered across the front.

As we clean up the newsroom and go through stacks of old issues, that masthead is a constant. The news changes, as do the fonts and the staff members and the campus climate, but the name “Trinitonian” on the top of the front page stays the same. Sometimes things need to change; sometimes there’s comfort to be found in throughlines that remind us where we came from.

Last Saturday, we used old Trinitonian articles in our spring training activities. I texted former Editor-in-Chief Kayla Padilla, letting her know her words still circulated in the newsroom.

Only a few moments later, a staff member picked up a certificate that was awarded to two former Trinitonian staff, including former Editor-in-Chief Kathleen Creedon, for their reporting. It still migrates around the room from table to table.

During alumni weekend, a pair of friends who used to be on the paper together decades ago approached our table in the Coates Student Center. One asked if she could see “the dungeon,” the windowless, slightly out-of-reach place where the journalistic magic happens. We took her down to the newsroom, a place where she will always belong.

Our first print paper of 2023 will hit the racks next Friday, Jan. 27. This will be the first of many Trinitonian lasts for the few seniors on our staff, so lately we’ve been reminiscing. Talking about how things were in the “before times” pre-COVID, old columns we wrote that we’re now embarrassed to read, how there used to be colored lightbulbs in the newsroom lamps and how we should really go buy some of those.

But the nice thing about this community is that it continues, no matter who comes or goes.
Regardless of how you support, we hope you also feel comforted when you see our masthead. We look forward to this semester of printing, online content and social media storytelling, and we thank you for being part of Trinitonian history.