Dear Macrocosm 2021, Hi! It’s your editor-in-chief (better known as the Fearless Supreme Leader of Week 3’s Macrocosm TV) here! Ironically, I’m writing this letter at 11:54 PM on July 30… almost three whole hours after my self-imposed deadline. Let’s just say I put off writing this letter because the thought of leaving COSMOS and Macrocosm 2021 after one of the greatest summers of my life was too heartbreaking for me to bear. (I totally wasn’t just procrastinating like I did on my final project.)
Procrastination jokes aside, getting to work with this incredibly inspiring group of hardworking, intelligent, creative, and talented individuals has been one of the best experiences of my entire life. Your ability to produce wonderfully entertaining and exciting content (whether that be through words, pictures, cartoons, videos, or putting all of those things together on a beautiful website) never ceased to amaze me. Throughout the past four weeks, getting to sit down every Sunday afternoon and marvel in the glory of Macrocosm 2021 quickly became a highlight of the week for me.
And my love for this incredible team didn’t stop at work. Our Sunday night Publishing Parties also became something that I looked forward to each week, and I would go to sleep every Sunday night laughing to myself at all of our hilarious antics. From our games of Gartic Phone to our k-pop listening parties (Jerry still has the best music taste) to our wonderful Discord emotes (yes, even :eicpet:), I absolutely loved every second spent with this team, and it breaks my heart knowing that my Sunday nights will be vacant from now on. (Can we please have monthly Sunday night Publishing Parties where we don’t actually publish anything?)
Of course, working on Macrocosm didn’t come without its struggles. I still remember my very first day of assuming the role of editor-in-chief: having to read over 50 applications for six different teams (and finding that only one person applied for the role of photographer as their first choice), deciding who to entrust the role of head of each team to, and setting up a Macrocosm Discord server (and breaking it multiple times) within less than twelve hours is not something that you forget very easily. But the entire process was so, so worth it, and not for a second do I regret the panicked role assigning and team roster-making that led me to all of you.
So I suppose what I’m trying to say through this long-winded, verbose letter is thank you.
Thank you to the Macrocosm writers and editors for working closely together to brainstorm splendid article ideas and turning these ideas into wonderful pieces of literature. Thank you to the Macrocosm cartoon artists for using your incredible artistic abilities to provide our newsletter with astonishing visuals. Thank you to the Macrocosm video editors for producing the wittiest and most entertaining videos (or “vods,” as I often called them) for Macrocosm TV. Thank you to the Macrocosm photographers for providing excellent pictures and visual aids for our articles. Thank you to the Macrocosm web designers for working tirelessly every Sunday to make sure that the rest of the team’s hard work could be culminated into a final, quintessential product.
Thank you, Macrocosm 2021 for being the best newsletter team I could ever ask for.
With love, Jade Wang (Cluster 5) Editor-in-Chief
Hello Macrocosm 2021! What a ride it’s been! Attending COSMOS online during a pandemic was already crazy, but the addition of an entire newsletter to help run made for quite a hectic month (sometimes I questioned whether this was a STEM-based or journalism-based summer camp haha). Yet this was one of the best and most memorable months of my life. It was so amazing to see each team coordinate together and create works of art every week, and I’ll still never comprehend how the cartoonists and video editors create such masterful crafts every week. Joining Macrocosm has been hands down the best decision I made at COSMOS, and I hope none of you regret signing up for this amazing journey. I’ll miss our Gartic Phone games and k-pop listening parties, and the lack of an in-person camp was definitely a struggle, but I hope you all have fun in the following years! Hopefully, we can have an in-person reunion sometime!
To the best editing team ever: Thanks so much for your hard work over these past four weeks. From putting up with me failing to do basic arithmetic and divide article workloads or reminding me to paste our spreadsheets into the Discord server, you have always been such a reliable team of amazing people. Even with my lack of pings (relatively speaking, of course, *glances at writing team*) and having never really received any instructions on how to edit (oops), you all have never failed to impress me with your clever re-words, insightful comments, and punctuality. You made my job easy :D. Good luck with all your endeavors in the coming years, and be sure to stay in contact with your Macrocosm teammates!
Best, Jerry Yuan (Cluster 2) Head Editor
Dear Macrocosm 2021 Writers, Hi. The stakes are so high right now. You see, as head-writer, I should be able to produce a high-quality letter. In reality, my brain is completely fried from final presentations, my Mac is overheating, and for some reason, Google Docs is frozen. A+ setup for writing an outstanding goodbye letter.
It has been a chaotic four weeks.
To start off, I have to apologize for the number of pings on Discord. PLEASE FORGIVE ME. IT WAS NECESSARY. With that disclaimer out of the way, we can move on.
Within our time together, we have panic-written at night and dreamed up articles during class. (Professors, please do not come for me.) We’ve spent afternoons chatting about new topics, conducting strange surveys, and of course, laughing about the oh-so iconic rice. As a team, we’ve come to rely on each other and fully utilize every member’s strengths.
Without each and every one of you, Macrocosm would not be what it is: a flourishing newsletter that captures every aspect of COSMOS. Your gifts as writers have shined throughout these four weeks, and I am always “proud-mom” smiling when I read your articles.
Thank you all for your dedication to your writing and the hard work you have put in. I see the times you have traded sleep for quality articles, and I am beyond amazed. (Although, you should start prioritizing your sleep.) Thank you for stepping up to write articles last minute and always producing such outstanding work.
I look forward to seeing all of you on the cover of scientific magazines, receiving outstanding awards and recognition. I will get to point at my laptop screen and scream: “I KNEW THEM!” (Please thank me in your acceptance speech)
So, as we wrap up our COSMOS experience, I encourage you to prioritize your sleep (circadian rhythms huh), take care of yourselves, and stay in contact. I am so proud to work with all of you and thankful for the ways you have inspired me. Love you guys so much, Sharis Hsu (Cluster 8) Head Writer
To Macrocosm 2021: Hey everyone… It’s now the last week of COSMOS… I’m really gonna miss everyone, even if I couldn't meet you all in person. I heard about the Bay Area meetup and here I am, crying internally as a SoCal person, 6 hours away from the NorCal people. (Yes, I actually checked Google Maps for this.) As the Head Web Designer, it was really great seeing everyone’s work come together onto the website that my web-designers all created together. (Thank god y'all liked it!) This was also my first time leading a group of people, and as the 4 weeks passed by, I really did gain a lot of experience, and I’m thankful to my group for understanding and being patient with me. As someone who is not proficient in writing, video editing, or drawing, I greatly admire everyone’s work and respect you all for making time to work on this website together. I’m sure we will meet each other in the future, though I do not know how, but I know six hours of distance will surely not stop us from meeting each other in real life. Good luck to everyone in the new school year!!
To my group, the Web-Designers: Let’s all agree that the first week of our making of the E-newsletter was really stressful. The “oh shoot we have to blur names?” expression we all had on our faces when Prof. Shaowei told us that we had to blur names made us all freak out until our head photographer stepped in and saved us from overworking was definitely a memorable thing in our first week of working together. I’m very grateful to work with a team that does their work on time and checks Discord often. You all are so competent, and I couldn't have asked for anything better.
Lindsay, thank you for supporting me even when I had no idea what to do; you really gave me confidence in leading this group. Dharssheni, thank you for always being on time and working well with Lindsay on the pictures; you two always work well together. Serena, I never did ask if you were okay with your workload, but again, I appreciate you always never failing to upload the video made by our video-editors onto our website. Jenna, thank you for giving tips on how to improve our communication with other groups and always making the articles look flawless. I'm sure we all gained some experience with communication and working together as a group, to create something big like a website. I want to meet you all in person, say a huge thank you, and hug you all.
Love you all, Prisca He (Cluster 6) Head Web-Designer
Hey Macrocosm 2021! Thanks y’all for making an amazing summer even better. I hope you guys enjoyed producing this newsletter as much as I did. To all the staff of this year’s newsletter: thank you guys for putting in so much work to publish amazing pieces every week. To my fellow heads: sorry for being five minutes late to every meeting — I was totally busy doing work and productive things (watching TV and playing video games). Finally, to the COSMOS faculty: thank you guys for supporting and promoting our newsletter, and for putting the immense effort in running this program and its activities.
To the video editing division (Jay and Alex): Y’all were absolutely phenomenal. Every Friday afternoon, I’d log onto Google Drive, watch the stories you guys produced, and consistently be impressed by what you guys put out. You two made my job so easy — always on time, always producing super high-caliber and hilarious content — you guys are ridiculously talented at video production, and I hope y’all continue with it.
Best, Adam Xu (Cluster 9) Head Videographer
To Macrocosm 2021: Hey Guys!! I can’t believe it’s the end of COSMOS 2021. When I first received the email saying that I am allowed to attend COSMOS 2021, I was super excited not because I can learn about something that I am interested in and have the chance to meet more fantastic people, but rather because it’s beautiful to write on a college application… don’t tell anyone I said that.
But things changed after “accidentally” receiving this “Head Photographer” position. (I was super frustrated initially because I wasn’t intending to be a leader, but I was the only person among the entire Macrocosm team who chose photographer as the first option and nobody wanted to be a head of the photography team!! Thanks to our beloved EIC Jade). I started to enjoy working with others and I truly understood the saying: “There’s strength in numbers.” I believe my participation in our Macrocosm e-newsletter team made my COSMOS experience more meaningful.
I also wanted to give a special thanks to our Head Web-Designer, Prisca, who provided a lot of great suggestions which really helps me be more organized and work better with the team. There’s a lot I want to say but I am really happy to work with you guys during this special online learning and I also learned a lot from each of you. I am so glad that I could meet such a fantastic team in the vast sea. Looking forward to meeting y'all (hopefully in-person). THANK YOU GUYS!!
To my best photographers, Sarah, Josh, Katie and April: Guys, I don’t know how to express my gratitude to you all. I never imagined working with such an amazing group during online classes. During last year's online class, I felt lonely and separated, and I believe you guys all know how breakout rooms were during the online class.
But working with you guys gave me a completely different experience: I learn from you all everyday and I feel happy (and a little stressed) to cram with you all together before the deadline because it makes me feel the spirit of unity. But this fantastic cooperation will last no more than 4 weeks, and I don’t know if our channel will be empty or not starting from next Monday, August 2nd, but you guys please know that you all brought me unexpected happiness this summer. Working with you guys really helped me develop and made my whole month more valuable. I will remember you guys for the rest of my life (why does this sound weird haha), and I can’t say how glad I am to have worked with such an amazing team. I have a lot to say but please don’t forget me. Hope we can meet in person one day! (Wo Ai Ni Men!!! (for Katie, Sarah and Josh); 사랑해 (for April))
Connie Liu (Cluster 3) Head Photographer
To Macrocosm 2021: Here we are: end of Week 4!!! I had never expected to also get the opportunity to participate in such a project when I applied for COSMOS, but I’m definitely grateful that I joined Macrocosm, as it has seriously been a blast meeting and working with all of you. Although this is a good-bye to COSMOS and Macrocosm 2021, I want this letter to instead be a see-you-later to all the *people* I’ve met at COSMOS and Macrocosm. In other words, let’s stay in touch!
To my fellow cartoonists: While I am slightly relieved at the prospect of getting a break from squinting at my laptop screen at night and cramming for cartoon deadlines after long days of online lectures, most of me is sad to see these four weeks come to an end. I’ve had a lot of fun chatting about our ideas and comics together, and I wish we had more weeks to look forward to drawing something new for the newsletter. Nevertheless, regardless of where all of us go from here on out, I know for sure that we cartoonists will have just as much fun after this summer doing whatever it is we choose to do. After all, we have the advantage of being (metaphorically) very buff in not only the left brain as COSMOS students, but also the right brain as Macrocosm cartoonists. ^v^ Thank you all so much for working on this project alongside me!
Michelle Zhao (Cluster 11) Head Cartoonist
To Macrocosm 2022 Newsletter Team...
Dear Macrocosm 2022, Why hello there! I’m not sure if we’ll ever meet (I had the pleasure of getting to meet the Macrocosm 2019 editor-in-chief, so maybe…), but if we don’t, I’d like to say: thank you for signing up to join Macrocosm! It takes a seriously motivated person to sign up for extra work during an already busy academic summer program. These next four weeks will be one of the craziest, busiest, most hectic weeks of your life, as you’ll have to juggle your own cluster work, newsletter work, and other life events (good luck with doing the laundry LOL) but in time, when you’re at the Closing Ceremony, you’ll wish you could relive your experience and all of the memories and inside jokes you’ve made. Being part of something as big as Macrocosm is really rewarding, and I hope you all come to love and cherish the newsletter you produce… I know it’ll be great!
To the Macrocosm 2022 Editor-in-Chief: Haha, good luck! … Just kidding, I wouldn’t just leave you like that. It’s definitely scary taking on the role of leader for such a massive newsletter team. You might think to yourself: “I’m not ready for this” or “Can I just resign now?” But trust me, if you stick out the first week, things will get so much easier. It’ll be a little chaotic at first, trying to assign everyone roles and select heads, and you might feel the need to micromanage because you aren’t sure if a bunch of strangers with other things to do outside of Macrocosm will be able to produce the quality content you’re looking for. But by Week 2, you’ll start to get into the groove and realize that you have a team of amazingly talented and hardworking individuals… and you can afford to trust them to produce high quality newsletter content. You can’t do every little thing in the newsletter, and you certainly shouldn’t expect yourself to. (You have your own life, you workaholic!) So instead of watching each and every person like a hawk, trust your heads and trust your team. Communicate, but don’t be overbearing. And above all, appreciate each and every one of your team members because seriously, they’re incredible.
I wish you all the best of luck with your edition of Macrocosm!
Best Regards, Jade Wang (Cluster 5) Macrocosm 2021 Editor-in-Chief
A message to Macrocosm 2022: Hello friends, I hope you’re enjoying the in-person (hopefully) camp, and that it’s not actually the year 2030 due to unforeseen circumstances. For those on the fence about signing up, you should definitely join. The Macrocosm team is going to be one of the best groups of people you’ll ever meet, and there are so many different roles you can fill. Especially now that you can hang out in person (I’m envious ;-;). Editors: just make sure one of you can do proper division to split up articles, and you’ll be fine. But in all seriousness, make sure you keep everything organized: deadlines, progress updates, article assignments, everything. Spreadsheets are your best friend, and communication between fellow editors and the writers is key. How you run your division is completely up to you, but we ended up having two separate drafts for writers to look at edits, with two editors per article. Good luck with running the paper, and I hope next year’s issues are at least ten times better than ours! Best, Jerry Yuan (Cluster 2) Head Editor
Macrocosm 2021…OH WAIT. Macrocosm 2022. It’s funny how fast the time goes, and it’s so weird to think that you guys will be Macrocosm 2022. ANYWAY, besides the point.
You are in for the craziest four weeks of your life, and hopefully, you’ll live to tell the tale. Don’t worry, no one has died, yet. Make the most of this time because it goes by so, so fast. I swear, yesterday, I was at orientation, and tomorrow I’m graduating. WHO INVENTED THE TIME MACHINE AND DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING?
To everyone interested in joining Macrocosm, DO IT. I don’t care about any excuses you have: can’t write, can’t draw, can’t edit?It doesn’t matter. Join Macrocosm, and you will not regret it at all. As a team, you will come to know each other, plus share so many inside jokes. These four weeks are a time for you to experiment with absolutely no judgment. As long as you try your absolute best AND stick to deadlines, no one will eat you alive.
For the new writing team: play around with your writing style. I didn’t come into Macrocosm with this casual writing style. I came in with MLA format and parallel theses. Look where I am now. Macrocosm is meant to be fun and casual, so let your writing fully express that.
From a technical standpoint: PAY ATTENTION TO THOSE DEADLINES. Don’t make your Head Writer come after you for not turning stuff in (that’s just awkward). Make sure to assign articles ASAP every week, and always have deadlines posted everywhere. Deadlines. Deadlines. Deadlines. They are very, very important. Also, don’t be dumb like us, and make sure that writers and editors have a Discord channel they can communicate in.
You are in for a completely unforgettable experience with people who will always love and support you. Believe in yourself and PAY ATTENTION TO DEADLINES.
I think I may have just ruined the emotional part and scared people away. Whoops.
Sharis Hsu (Cluster 8) Head Writer
To Macrocosm 2022 Web Designers: Hello, hello~ You might not think that being a web-designer is a hard task, but know this role weighs heavily on communication and working with each other. Let me reiterate that: Make sure to always communicate with each other! If there are any specific requests that the writers, video editors, or cartoonists have, fulfill them to the best of your ability. Though our year, COSMOS 2021, hasn’t found out how to list our website on Google, I hope you guys are successful with doing so, because I have to refer back to a link every time to see our website… pain.
Make sure to also have fun while working with each other — don’t let this time become a waste and become close with each other, because I couldn’t really do so due to this year’s COSMOS being held virtually.
Finally, be proud of your work! Even though you may have not written an article, drawn a cartoon, or edited a video, you all are contributing to this student-made website. I wish you all the best of luck!
Prisca He (Cluster 6) Head Web-Designer
To Macrocosm 2022: Heyyyyy 2022 COSMOSers… I’m already jealous just thinking about the fact that you guys get to be in person :’). The video editing division has historically been small: 2 editors in total last year, and 3 this year. I hope that changes! The more, the merrier: you guys actually get to record interesting footage and interviews at UCSC campus — I really hope a lot more people will be interested in editing videos next year. As for advice, I’d say just don’t procrastinate; the earlier you have footage done and the earlier you start editing, the better off the entire division will be.
I wish you guys the best of luck, and hope y’all have a great time in-person :D
Best, Adam Xu (Cluster 9) Head Videographer
To Macrocosm 2022 Photographers:
Hey Guys!! I am 2021’s Head Photographer, Connie! I hope you guys can read this letter one day! I really want to say please cherish these short 4 weeks: you will learn new things from each other and make more friends! I know you guys will be more professional and organized than me but please contact me if you need to hear some experience and I am always willing to help!! And please take a look at the 2021 e-newsletter, especially Week 3 and Week 4’s highlight picture!!
I will mark my quote here: “You will never go wrong with Hunt’s Tomato Sauce and Shaowei rice.” - Cluster 3, Connie Liu. (If you are from cluster 3, plz let Alex Jones know how appreciative I am to meet such an amazing teacher like him, he has the most unique personality among hundreds of teachers I met). Enjoy your time in COSMOS!!!!
Connie Liu (Cluster 3) Head Photographer
To Macrocosm 2022 Cartoonists: Welcome to Macrocosm! Be proactive! Make sure to communicate with the people you’re working with! Engage In The Programbecause everything can and will be a source of inspiration, both in the short-term for your cartoons and in the long-term for your future! Don’t procrastinate because your artwork (and all projects in general) is always going to take much, much longer than you think it will (speaking from Personal Experience ;v;)! Most of all, have fun and enjoy your time at COSMOS! (~^^)~