Have you ever done the crossword from the puzzle section? Did you know for the past five semesters that it was made by students? 

The notion for making the crossword came from my dorm in Francis. I tried to finish the puzzle but the clues stumped me. I knew that it wasn’t made for young college students, it was for the target audience of people who actually lived through the clues. My roommate, Kira, and I complained about it together and that’s when we thought of asking the Maroon to make the crossword. At first when we walked into the Maroon’s office, the editor-in-chief thought we were asking to upload it onto the website, which they were happy to teach us. But we wanted to do more than that, we wanted to make them from scratch.

We started drawing out the crossword in September of 2023. Did we have any idea on how to make a crossword? Nope! I started by looking up 15×15 crossword templates and tried to fill out the empty spaces on procreate. My new routine was to wake up on Tuesday mornings at 7 a.m. and spend the next three to four hours trying to put these words together. Whenever I was stuck, Kira would fill in what I couldn’t find. We always did the clues together, I typically did the ACROSS and Kira did the DOWN. Our first few crosswords had so many problems with us forgetting numbers, misspelling clues, and spending far too long on one section just to scrap it in the end. In the spring of 2023, Kira and I grew tired of the boring templates that every other newspaper used. We started to make pictures instead. The crossword then became themed!

I adore making the crossword and it’s been my fun fact in every class. I often peer pressured students and professors alike to pick one up. People often ask to put words in and we even sneak our friend’s names in there for their birthdays. 

Unfortunately, I graduate in December and I won’t be able to work on it anymore. Thankfully, one of my close friends, Olive, is interested in continuing the crossword after I leave. I know that one day, there will be no crossword maker for the Maroon and it’ll go back to repostings of the LA Times but I’m grateful I could be a part of this moment where the crossword was made for the students and by the students.