Will Leitch

Exactly two days after I graduated from the University of Illinois in May 1997, my father and I packed up my 1993 Toyota Camry and drove across the country to Los Angeles, where I was scheduled, one week later, to start a job at U. The National College Magazine. Older

About a decade ago, I went back to Champaign to speak to a journalism class at the University, ostensibly to proffer wisdom but, in reality, to attempt to encourage gaggles of teenagers to continue to pursue a field that is endlessly fascinating and deeply rewarding but also is unsteady and

In the first 18 years of my life, I hugged my father exactly twice. The second time was when I graduated from high school—it was quick and awkward for both of us. The first time was on a March afternoon, when I was 13 years old, after Jay Edwards