If by any chance you happen to be part of a Newpaper or other printed publication, you probably understand this. Well, it’s probably limited to monthly and quarterlies, like my school paper, but still, it’s a known concept.

Essentially, during pressweek all the pages get done. Until that point, stories are still being written, photos taken, and ads sold. However, during the last week before the pages get sent to press (the printer) all the page editors are scrambling to put everything together in a cohesive and enticing design.

Press week for me, as the sports page editor of my school paper, means that I have to stay after school until around 9 o’clock p.m. every day that week, until my page goes through initial edits, secondary opinions, staff critiques, body-text editing, photo checks, infographic redesigns, and finally: Final Edits.

These steps are crucial for any page editor to go through, as any good editor knows that the first design is never good enough, and never stays the same. From the Friday before press week to the time the pages are exported as PDFs, they have undergone almost total overhaul.

It’s during these weeks that I always wish to go back to being a reporter, so I can spend the hectic days of press week as the majority of them do, chatting at the tables and doing relatively nothing. Instead, I’m painstakingly editing photos to press quality and arranging and rearranging stories so they fit on my page with all the other aspects I’m supposed to cover.

Thankfully, the week is over and I can get back to not pulling my hair out. Hallelujah.