Dear Reader,

I brew a warm cup of hand-dripped coffee. I open the window wide to let the late-summer breeze in. I turn on lofi hip hop music and stretch my arms. I am ready to go. I open a document, type “Dear Reader”, and tap on the Enter key twice. I got this.

Three hours pass and the whiteness of the empty page stares at me. Chunks of words appear on the screen and then disappear; some re-appear, and then re-disappear. What makes writing these 700-or-so words this difficult? Well, perhaps I am too worried about what first impression of me this Letter will leave on you, Reader.

The cliché goes, what is most important is invisible to the eye. But if some abstract qualities that define me cannot be seen, then what’s the point of it, when we humans, as social beings, can never be free from the eyes of others? In a way, what is important does get “seen”, just in less direct ways. One’s passion is seen through their sparkling eyes and excited tone; one’s care for others is shown through their gentle manners and kind words. And thus, sometimes I wonder how I am reflected in others’ eyes.

Embarking on my two-semester journey as the Editor-in-Chief of The KAIST Herald, I am inevitably entitled to care about how I am reflected in your eyes, Reader; more importantly, how the Herald is reflected in the eyes of KAISTians. What the Herald values and exists for cannot be seen directly, but it can be observed through our words on this very paper — or website — that you are reading from. In that sense, I interpret my position as Editor as a facilitator of delivering you the stories and ideas that the Herald stands for.

I hope our dedication to inform and voice opinions about ongoing issues on campus is reflected in News and Op-Ed, where we discuss the new military remote learning system and first international proctors. I hope our belief that words have the power to give comfort is seen in the new mental health series in Society. I hope our role of raising awareness on overlooked issues is observed in this month’s Feature on underappreciated workers of KAIST. I hope our endeavors to provide food for thought are seen in this month’s International Spotlight about the past, present, and future of Afghanistan. And I hope that the extent to which you, Reader, are essential to the reason for our existence can be spotted through our efforts to increase our social media presence and reach out to you. Without you, our purpose is incomplete. And neither will be my job.

While I confidently say all this, I sometimes find myself wondering what exactly that “purpose” is. To me, the Herald’s motto of “serving the KAIST community” cannot fully capture it. I am, however, slowly understanding the power and potential that our publication can have as a school newspaper. Each article I go through during the publication process makes me realize there are too many issues that we cannot even think of looking into or conveniently choose to ignore. Indeed, we live in a busy world; sometimes just managing what’s going on in our own lives feels like more than enough to deplete our time and energy. Still, we must not forget that we live in a “world”, not a bubble.

Perhaps that’s the purpose of Herald: to connect you to the world surrounding us. To bring to you the often overlooked problems that exist in every corner of this imperfect world — especially in our campus. To urge you to contemplate what we individuals can do to fix them. We have the power to bring small changes around us — and that might actually be a huge change for someone else. You, dear Reader, are the end-point of our publication, but at the same time, you are the starting point.

So, I guess I did succeed in filling the blankness of this page. What your first impression of me is, I do not know. My only hope during this journey as Editor-in-Chief is to fulfill my role as that facilitator, to deliver the most of the Herald to you. And if I can hope for one more thing, it is for you to see the messages of Herald articles, which our reporters carefully construct every month, and reconstruct it in your own way — and share it, discuss it, and voice it with those around you.

With hope and anticipation,

Jisun Lee

Editor-in-Chief