In the fall of 2022, my friends and I started James Madison University’s very first lifestyle magazine. In writer Marcel Proust’s, “Swann’s Way,” he recalls a childhood memory that transports him back to that very moment when he was a little boy. He can smell the air, feel the warmth of childhood home, and taste the Madeline cookie he remembers eating all those years ago. Researchers call this the “Proust Effect", where something so familiar triggers your senses effected and transports you back to that very moment in time.
“Proust” Magazine, named after that very effect is dedicated to capturing the essence at James Madison University during students four years. A time capsule of memories we will never forget. We will all live different lives, move across states and countries, start our careers, raise families and maybe college will seem like a chapter in our life’s story, but one day Proustian moments will reconnect us to the pieces of our lives spent at JMU.
PROUST
VOL I. ISSUE I.
Proust is dedicated to “Keeping Print Alive.” Our very first issue released in the fall of 2022. Writers, designers, editors, and friends came together and woke up at 5am to distribute copies. So proud of our very issue, we made sure everyone had access to a copy. We left magazines all over different buildings on campus. After what we thought was a successful first launch, the staff all hit brunch at our favorite spot downtown. A few mimosas in, we get a call. Multiple buildings across campus had threw out hundreds of copies of Proust. We were stunned. At Proust, we raise all our own money to print. And months of fundraising had just been literally thrown in the trash. I knew just who to call. A professor in the School of Media Arts & Design (SMAD) who also worked as a journalist in the local community. He called an emergency SMAD staff meeting and him and our beloved law professor led the way. They felt very passionately about taking away writers and students voices. They even had the local police called for a violation of First Amendment rights. Finally, after what felt like thousands of calls, we were able to solve the issue and get JMU to pay for all the tossed out copies. They also offered to pay for our next issue. A remarkable first launch, but it incapsulated Proust and truly was a story of “Keeping Print Alive.”
VOL I. ISSUE II.
Vol. I Issue II. We had readers! They were so excited for our next release. This time around we wanted to focus on trends at the time. We also wanted to incorporate students’ voices through their art and poetry. The cover was a way to encapsulate our staff’s hard work and ambition to release the second issue despite the challenges. It only made sense to put Abby Maltese on the cover. A student athlete at JMU, Abby also owns her own clothing brand and was a member of the NASA Student Launch team. Balancing school, sports, life, and rocket science, Abby is an inspiration and example of perseverance. The balloons she’s holding signify her hopes and dreams. Her freedom to explore herself and take flight. Our dreams are nothing without challenges. Proust is a dream come to true for the staff, but it doesn’t come without the obstacles, hours of dedication, and constant chase for more. Why settle, when you can always achieve more? Our ambition and passion drive us to keeping going and learn as we go. We are learning who we are through all our struggles. It may not be rocket science but we’re still figuring it out. And that’s true of Proust too. No matter the struggles and obstacles we face, we will learn through each challenge and continue to keep print alive.
VOL II. ISSUE I.
This issue was all about reminiscent of what once was. Those moments of nostalgia - the good an the bad - inspired the name of this magazine. As a staff of almost all seniors, we were looking ahead to what comes next after graduation - and we couldn’t help but look back where we’ve been. A favorite professor of ours said something that we couldn’t forget when creating this issue, “Everything old is new again.” With that in mind we began to talk about trends. We reminisced and found connections and memories we all shared - even though we had them in different states and different homes. Our brief meeting turned into a two hours of laughs and shared experiences. In the weeks after, we started out searching for tokens that would transport us to another time, wandering through Heartworn Vintage in downtown Harrisonburg, VA. We were overjoyed with the moments of nostalgia. Our staff decided to call that feeling “prousty.” And it’s what we feel every week when we put this magazine together. With the start of Volume II we hoped that every reader could find their “prousty” moment, their “I remember when.” We hoped it made our readers excited to call up a friend or sibling to talk about the game they were obsessed with in the ‘90s, or the song they played on loop in 2003. We hoped that when they flipped through the magazine they were reminded of a moment that excites and inspires them.
VOL II. ISSUE II.
From the time we’re little, we’re taught the importance of sharing. As we get older and build connections, we stop sharing toys and start sharing ideas and opinions. Voices join in conversation and have the ability to change our day and sometimes, our life. These conversations often happen around a table. Tables that host job interviews, card games, group projects, holiday dinners, and of course beer pong. Whatever the occasion, the tables we sit at, and the people we share them with always tell a story. A history of who we were, who we are and who we hope to be. As college students, we sit at many tables - some academic, some social. Proust has been both. Along the way, we’ve learned important skills about communicating, about teamwork, we’ve learned to design pages and write stories that share the messages important to us us, in the hopes they’ll become important to our readers. We’ve built friendships, community, and teams all connected by a common passion - Proust. The table we’ve built is a place for collaboration, a value we hold high. We listen to opinions we don’t agree with, and we run with the ideas we’re excited about. We’ve connected with inspiring students and the Harrisonburg community. We’ve crafted new coffees, set tables, and built bouquets - each story giving us an opportunity to peer into other people’s world and experience their passions firsthand. Many of us were graduating that year, and soon, we’d be searching for our next table. We can’t be sure where we’ll find it. But, memories of the table we’ve built at JMU will always guide our search.