We hope every senior who went to prom had the perfect night to remember. And we hope the same for every junior, but you all have another shot next year.

We also understand that there was a lot of controversy around this prom (page 20) and that there will always be students who won’t have that idyllic prom memory. Moreover, in the wake of the recent college admissions scandal, we have learned how Section 504 is being abused to gain unfair advantages in standardized testing, among other news, it’s reasonable to feel that the sky is unfairly falling on our generation.

This year in the Raven Report, we admit to having felt this. The stability of our resources has been tested this year like no time since its establishment, and we will face a drop in over one-third of our staff and nearly the entirety of our editorial board just by losing seniors in June. Very, very often, it has felt that the easiest thing to do would be to admit defeat and submit a bad publication made unenthusiastically.

However, that would mean you’d get a bad Raven Report. Amidst all this unfairness, we have the duty to stop it in its tracks. We don’t only roll with the punches, we adapt to absorb their power, and give you—we hope—the best content yet. We always have the responsibility to serve you by sharing your worries and your accomplishments, your stories of opportunities taken to actively reverse the adversity faced, like one student who seized the opportunity to advocate for women’s rights at the United Nations last month.

Lastly, not only do we have a responsibility to serve you, but you all have a responsibility to serve yourselves. Yes, at times the world can be imperfect and unfair, especially right around high school. But there are still nights (and days) to remember. And those all come, not by luck, but by people actively taking agency and control of their fortune.

The only way to not regret a cringey or controversial prom is to be proud of how much fun you had at it, and how much more you’ll have at the next. The only way not to be upset about a bad response to a project you were proud of, is to remember why you were proud. The only way to get over rejection from one college is to live in the moment at your new one and be proud of everything you did to get there. If you wear rose-colored glasses, you won’t defeat injustice, but you’ll give it the thorough thrashing it needs.