This year, for whatever reason, I was determined to have some sort of stability here at The Spectator. Of course, being news editor comes with somewhat of a routine, things can still get pretty hectic to say the least.

I eventually decided that maybe the best way to obtain this stability was through a column of my own. If I had at least something to write, even during my busy weeks, I would make sure that I was still contributing something to the paper each week. 

So, welcome to “In the key of E” everyone. 

This beat of mine doesn’t necessarily have a structure that is set in stone in any way, and maybe it never will. Its ideal use will be to serve as a place for my thoughts to lie. 

I know what you might be thinking: “Elyse, isn’t putting your thoughts out for everyone to read a little bit terrifying?” The answer: Yes.

Regardless of the nature of each week’s topics, all of what you read will come directly from my thoughts and experiences. This could be about the songs or albums I have on repeat and the artists behind them, the books I’m reading, the classes I’m taking and what I take away from them after each lesson or simply about whatever is going on in my life at that moment.

In the simplest of explanations, this column is like a blog or a journal entry (as terrifying as that sounds) mixed with the trend called the weekly R.E.P.O.R.T. The weekly R.E.P.O.R.T. keeps people updated on what you’re reading, eating, playing, obsessing over, recommending and treating yourself to.

As someone whose main and most efficient form of communication is writing, I cannot even begin to express how important it is for people to write down their thoughts. It allows you to review what you know. It allows you to think deeper than surface level and outside of the mind.

This isn’t just an opinion of my own, though, it’s a studied idea. According to the study “Writing as thinking” by Richard Menary, we as humans “create and manipulate words and sentences in conjunction with relevant bodily and neural functions.”

In other words, writing is how we put thinking into action and into some sort of physical form. 

Cognitive integration,  a term rooted in cognitive psychology, is a mental connection between different types of knowledge. In the case of writing, as Menary puts it, “cognitive abilities to write and manipulate written vehicles are explained in terms of a cognitive integration between neural, bodily and manipulative processes.”

So, if you won’t take my word for it, take Richard Menary’s. Processing thoughts through writing can be so very beneficial. I can only hope I get to experience those benefits as a result of this column, and I hope readers do too. 

If not anything else, I hope you get to learn how absolutely amazing my music taste is.

Before I go, I’ll give you a quick but (in my opinion, at least) very exciting weekly R.E.P.O.R.T. I promise I’ll go into more detail next week.

Reading: “My Life With Words” by Barbara F. Luebke, “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert and “City of Ashes” by Cassandra Clare.

Eating: A concerning amount of goldfish and iced coffee.

Playing: “Kansas Anymore” by ROLE MODEL and “Pushing It Down and Praying” by Lizzy McAlpine.

Obsessing: The iced matcha latte with strawberry from The Goat Coffee House.

Recommending: Write down your thoughts at least once every couple of days.

Treating: Lone reading sessions in the park by my house.

Thank you for joining me this week, I can’t wait to see what this column turns into.

– E. 

Braun can be reached at [email protected].