It’s the Fourth of July and I’m sitting at The Daily office. At first, I ask myself: why? Why am I not celebrating with my friends? Why am I not watching fireworks? Why am I sober?

I can hear fireworks cracking outside; I can almost see my friends laughing around a bonfire at the beach. Wistfully, I remember the Fourth of Julys of my childhood spent surrounded by friends and family on Central Park’s Great Lawn. I would lie staring at the colorful fireworks thundering overhead against the New York City skyline, highlighted by the Empire State Building, lit up in red, white and blue for the occasion.

I’m reminded of my favorite literary quote, from the opening pages of Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road,” in which the narrator, Sal Paradise, frames the novel’s eccentric hero, Dean Moriarty: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”

So all these things come to mind as I wonder why I’m not out celebrating the most American of holidays.

Then I realize it’s because there’s somewhere else I’d rather be — here, at The Daily, working hard to put out a newspaper.

While everyone working on the summer volume has other obligations — be they classes, research projects or summer jobs — we are all firmly committed to our newspaper.

Over the summer, The Daily is a misnomer. Rather than a daily paper, our summer publication is a modest, tabloid-style weekly. While it would be next to impossible for our small summer staff to turn out a newspaper every day, it is my hope that the extra time afforded by weekly publication will allow for more in-depth reporting and provocative features.

For the next nine weeks, The Stanford Weekly, which will be distributed around campus every Thursday until Aug. 30, will provide the Stanford community with the stories that may not earn ink anywhere else.

While organized team sports do not compete over the summer, our sports staff will provide frequent updates on Stanford athletes as they compete at the individual level, participate on national teams and prepare for next season.

Our entertainment staff will keep a lively watch over the campus arts scene in addition to reviewing the summer blockbusters scheduled to come out over the next two months.

Our columnists will continue to enliven our opinions page with their wit and incisive look into life at Stanford and beyond.

And our news team will stay on top of the issues and stories that affect all levels of the Stanford community.

While the pace of life on campus slows over the summer, those of us who work at The Stanford Weekly will not rest until we have supplied you, our readers, with the high quality newspaper you are accustomed to.