The Northern Plight

The plight was born out of some sly chat between Bernstein and I while reading the Onion in a coffee shop in Minneapolis last summer. Giggling to each other noisily and probably annoying everyone around us, we dreamed innocently of our own “NCU Onion.” It was Bernstein who first put our prattling jokes into actual stories and me who got it all into a blog.

I still have the crumpled piece of yellow legal paper where I wrote my first six headlines, 2 of which made it on the site as “Student Can’t Hack It As A Rock Star, Releases Worship Album” and “2 NCU Students Slain In Spirit, Funerals Monday.” I remember writing them in the confused twilight somewhere over the Atlantic while coming home from a missions trip. I had no idea what that sheet of paper would become.

That was less than a year ago, but the nostalgia and the unexpected success of our blog makes it feel so much further.

Let me apologize for my silence recently. I haven’t posted in over a month and it’s largely due to my own impending graduation. In the past my mind defaulted to thinking of funny ways to say things everyone knew about NCU—but simply didn’t know they knew about NCU. But recently, idle thinking has given rise to more pressing matters like growing up and all that. It’s exciting, certainly, but I still do miss my fervor at the keys in the early hours of the morning, editing and re-editing the scathing details of some poignant article I’d just crafted.

After returning from Spring Break, I felt my satire sense waning. Many of the things that used to annoy me at North Central actually emerged as mostly harmless, and even strangely endearing in their own way. Alumni readers might know what I mean but I don’t think it’s necessary. It’s like living away from home for a few months, than coming back on a visit and finding the creaky stair, the neighbor’s noisy dog, and your mother’s scolding look at your muddy shoes on the carpet, all make you happy—though you recall very clearly they’re once making you upset.

I’m not graduated yet, nor has the abundance of plight fodder ceased to seep from NCU’s policies and characters. But I simply feel like my time with The Northern Plight has come to an end.

I can honestly say there’s nothing I posted on this site that goes against the mission statement we outlined from the beginning:

The Northern Plight exists to create healthy conversation with
the intent of generating positive change at North Central University.

That’s one reason that the plight is easily one of the top five things I’m most proud of from my four years at NCU (two of the other things being feats I accomplished naked or near naked while living in the dorms).

Thank you for reading all this crazy stuff that I wrote. Especially those of you who’ve been reading since the beginning. I hope to be a writer some day, and your support has encouraged me to continue practicing.

I leave you now in the capable hands of my cohort, Schroeder Bernstein. As always, be awesome.

Yours,

Linus Woodward

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WOODWARD’S FAVORITE PLIGHT MOMENTS:
My First Controversial Article
NCU Institution Backlash (Did you know they banned us from advertising on campus?)
My Most Underrated Article
Bernstein’s Most Underrated Article
That Frickin’ Emo Article (It still gets more hits than any other post on the site!)
I Always Liked This One (Not sure why)
1 + 2 + 3 (3 posts I wrote that actually meant something.)