The KNN & Me

Most of you know by now that I have been a longstanding member of the KNN. Going back to the very start I was commissioned to write the first article of the week, and since then, I have become a full-fledged columnist in my own right. And every time the KNN grows I feel a sense of joy at how much it has changed. From one page to two. From two to three. And now onto this website. It feels like the KNN has finally become something worth spreading. Something worth expanding past our small group of close friends. And that is a strange feeling. A mix of pride and joy, but sorrow as well. We have come a long way since our creation almost a year ago now, and I wouldn’t change anything about it. We sure have had some changes. The introduction and cancelation of the book recap corner, never really became as well known as we hoped it could be. Then our occasional short stories, which are always a delight to have and share. And each new columnist has been a great privilege to share space on this great paper with. I hope one day so many more people can become a part of this organization, and that we keep getting better and better. 

Change as a Constant

Looking across the vast expanse of media, we see that human behavior has largely been nailed down by us fellow humans. We have recreated our flaws, our desires, our base instincts; and have dissected the history behind all of these things. But among all of these types of fiction, nothing quite encapsulates the human condition much more than the archetype of the immortal. For those unaware, an immortal is a being that cannot be killed for one reason or another and usually does not age either. Immortality has long been a human desire, an endless life as opposed to our infinitesimally short one. Because looking out at the vast cosmos, our short lives mean nothing. While some research points to even the earliest version of us emerging as early as 7 million years ago, the very earth on which we live is about 4.6 billion years old. To put these in perspective, one million seconds is about 11.5 days, while one billion seconds is 31.7 years. We are merely a footnote in the history of Earth so far. We come after the great supercontinent of Pangea, and the great Dinosaurs of the past. Even sharks have existed longer than us, estimated to have emerged 450 million years ago. And so I bring this back to the Immortal. Across fiction, mythology, and general works of theory, an Immortal is a being that is the antithesis of change. Ancient works from every culture have beings that cannot change and will not change, as they have become above it. And so when an immortal across fiction is shown to be brought to our level, and see our struggles, they notice that we cannot stop changing. Every second, of every day, our body moves and mixes and replaces. Roughly every 10 years, your body has completely replaced every cell. You are still you, but not quite the same you as you were before. You have changed, mentally, physically, even fundamentally. And this is a major philosophical debate, known as the Ship of Theseus. And to avoid the philosophical conundrum, I will once again return to the immortal. An immortal, who has never known change, may envy the ability of a human. We live such short lives, so we try to do something with it, while an infinite life leads to complacency. An infinite life leads to stagnation. We are defined by the changing moment, they are defined by nothing. Take this as a lesson on change. Sometimes we focus too much on big changes when every little thing we do is a change. Nothing we have ever done has been exactly the same as it was last. We should envy the little changes once and a while because change is the foundation of our lives. And we all need to envy the life we have once and a while. 

-Austin

Time is a flat circle, it whizzes past us before we can even really take a look at the things happening around us people. So many things have just happened this year of 2025, and it’s only February. Take this article for example, we’re getting a full-blown website, how insane is that? We started from just silly little columns that only one person had to write to a pretty large team that all worked on this singular paper. This is also the thirteenth article I’ll be participating in, which just puts this type of surreal feeling in, mostly because I remember writing the first column I did (which was more than a couple of months ago)

What’s also changed so quickly that even my teachers can’t actively keep up? Government. I’m not a political person, but I can tell that something’s a bit off when you see the Gulf of Mexico be changed to the Gulf of America. Now also, whenever I look at the White House’s official social media page, I’m practically flashed by all of these strange posts as I’m left to wonder; “Who is in charge of the social pages?”.

What you can take from this is what I started with: Time is a flat circle. So, spend your time wisely with the ones around you, cause there’s always the possibility that one of you gets run over by a bus.

-Charlotte