As MOVE gets ready to turn 10 this spring, one of my, and The Maneater’s, main goals for the year was to help MOVE grow into a publication with its own identity. You may have noticed more alternative coverage or the beginnings of a major website makeover. This issue marks the beginning of one of the biggest changes we planned: filling eight pages of content on a regular basis. It is the first step in a greater goal to eventually make MOVE a stand-alone, full-on (possibly tabloid-sized) publication of its own – something many MOVE editors, writers and designers have fantasied about.

This is officially the biggest MOVE has ever been, and it’s the first non-special-issue MOVE with eight pages. We’re doing it just because. For that same non-reason, I decided to give it a theme, the theme being “ways to escape the three-jobs-seven-days-a-week-plus-school-norm, just because.” You don’t need to celebrate anything to set off fireworks, you don’t need to have a mid-life crisis to sky dive, you don’t need to be getting married to go hot air ballooning.

I’ve always seen MOVE as a haven for art, expression, discovery and all things off-beat – a break from the serious, straight-up news pages in The Maneater. My hope is that something in these eight pages will serve as something similar in your life, a break from the straight-up seriousness of academia, even if it takes retro-rollerskating or the Alpine Tower to find.

As I move forward with my semester and my career at MU, my goal with MOVE has not changed. Because I am working two other life-consuming jobs and going to school (yeah, I was personalizing a bit in the second graf), however, I have realized that the best thing I can do to help MOVE grow is to step aside and let someone who can dedicate more time and energy to the publication take over.

This is my last issue as MOVE editor, and I hope it sets a positive precedent. In a way, the theme of this issue encapsulates my experience with MOVE. It was a whim, it has been stressful, exciting and dynamic every step of the way – and, cheesy as it is – I will never forget it.

I won’t go into a list of thank-yous to readers and people I’ve worked with, but please, enjoy the very first eight-page, just-for-the-hell-of-it MOVE – ads-free. Because that’s what our generation values, apparently.