If you have been an avid reader of The Fordham Ram’s editorials recently, then you may very well think that the world is nothing but a dystopian hellscape: one devoid of everything but doom and gloom. After all, for the better part of Volume 107, our editorial team has made the calculated choice to tackle some of the most depressing, yet prescient, issues in this contentious contemporary moment. From the extrajudicial revocations of student visas to the erosion of free media rights in America, it was our belief that we would be doing a disservice to the greater Fordham University community if we did not actively shine a light on the gross moral decay and sociopolitical rot that we saw festering in and around our world.

However, considering the present article is set to be the last editorial of this volume, The Ram would like to set the record straight and offer up the following thought: the world beyond the greystone confines of Rose Hill is really not as putrid as it may perhaps seem to our loyal readers. Despite all the (rightful) complaining that The Ram does about the seemingly backwards current state of affairs, reality is really not that bad at the end of the day. Honestly, it might even be, on the whole, a positive place full of love, joy and hope.

Don’t believe us? Then consider the following … The Ram’s Managing Editor, Jacob Wolfer, was recently accepted into law school and has nothing but a wonderful life waiting for him. Our Editor-in-Chief, Nora Malone, has not only accomplished more in her three years at The Ram than most journalists will in a lifetime, but she is also about to live out her study abroad dreams in the home country (i.e., Ireland). Our Production Editor, Sophie Maselli, will soon live out every aspiring writer’s fantasy when she publishes her forthcoming debut novel, “Settle,” to widespread critical acclaim. Our Business Director, Nishanth Aduma, is (and hopefully always will be) just Nishanth — the man who is somehow always smiling. Even The Ram’s production meetings — sacred periods of time supposedly meant to be filled with nothing other than grueling labor — have become nights filled with enough laughter, inside jokes and Curtis Sliwa fanfictions to fill a lifetime.

In fact, the very reality that The Ram continues to publish editorials gestures at the fact that there is goodness in this world, that there is genuinely something worth fighting for and saving amidst all the muck. That is, The Ram would not be in the business of publishing well-researched and labored-over calls to action if we were ultimately just shouting into a meaningless void. Rather, we continue to write, continue to publish and continue to distribute our work because we see goodness as fundamentally, irrevocably and undeniably present in this world. Indeed, we argued against the destruction of foreign aid infrastructure because we saw value in the human lives that such a system was meant to protect; we called for the establishment of more ethical artificial intelligence usage guidelines because we thought that human ingenuity and creativity were things worth safeguarding; and we rallied against vapid capitalistic consumption because we wanted to restore value to that which we hold so dear: human experience.

This is all to say: Do not resign yourself to pessimism. To be sure, the world may certainly seem like a bleak and frightening place, and our constant criticism of its flaws may only serve to amplify this negative perception. Yet, at its core, it is truly anything but. Thus, for the last time in 2025, The Fordham Ram would like to issue a call to action: hold on dear to what you love and fight like hell for it. Nihilism and resignation are simply not the answer in a world with so much to lose.