After the full stop

Full stops have a bad reputation. We use them to say goodbye, close stories, and lower the blinds. They seem irreversible, almost cruel. However, a full stop is just a small ink stain. Sometimes it's where the next sentence begins.

Today we are publishing the 100th issue of Ara Terres de Lleida. The figure is impressive, but it explains very little. It doesn't speak of the hours, the doubts, or the unanswered calls. Figures count copies; memory counts people. Inevitably, I think of Maria Fauria and that madness we called 7accents. We wanted to create a newspaper and stand up to an ecosystem accustomed to a single voice. First came the recognition as Best New Publication in Catalonia; then, the alliance with ARA. The names changed. The need to explain ourselves, did not.

However, it took me a while to understand. When we lowered the blinds on 7accents, I thought that full stop was about me. I had confused directing with carrying, leading with resisting, and responsibility with guilt. Meanwhile, anxiety attacks reminded me that no one can bear the weight of a newsroom alone.

Over time, I have accepted that perhaps I was not born to captain large structures. And that's okay. Perhaps I am more useful as a travelling companion, as a domestique, pushing when the road gets steep. In fact, a newspaper is not an individual feat: no one reaches a hundred alone. Therefore, this 100th issue is not just for a director or a masthead. It belongs to those who have written, photographed, edited, designed, distributed, and sold these pages. And to those who have bought them, folded them, underlined them, or left them on a table for someone to read. Above all, it belongs to a land that refuses to be always explained from the outside.

So, when you hold it in your hands, I will not see a victory. I will see the people who have accompanied us and that young person who wanted to defy the odds with more enthusiasm than resources. This time I will not tell him to be careful. I will tell him to go for it. It will hurt, yes, but it will be worth it.

After all, 100 does not come after 99, but after a full stop that refused to be one. It is the most beautiful way to start counting from one again: continuing to believe that the next page is still worth writing. Perhaps this is journalism. And perhaps it is also life.