They say high school is the best four years of your life and, well, I’m hoping that’s not true. For me high school was stress. Lots of stress. Physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It was always essays, projects, presentations and a bunch of other not fun stuff that comes along for the ride. However, in the massive storm of stress that has been high school my calming eye of the storm has been my journalism classes. They’ve always been the highlight of each school day, from Journalism I to online newspaper and even yearbook. It’s pretty hilarious to think that I only got into journalism by chance too.
As a freshman I didn’t really know what I wanted to take for electives, so I was like ‘Hey I like to draw and stuff, I’ll do art’. But as many students know it’s insanely difficult to get into Art I, especially as a freshman because it’s usually reserved for seniors looking for that last minute art credit. Anyway, I didn’t end up in art, I got stuck in some tech class, which I didn’t like at all. I found it extremely boring, so I asked for a change. And like many students here know, it’s insanely difficult to get a schedule change. After like four weeks of school and many counselor request forms I finally got called in. My counselor said ‘Well you got two options’. Welp. ‘You can either join child development or Journalism I’. I didn’t want to go to child development so I thought hey I like to write I’ll try journalism. And I don’t regret it for a second.
I love writing. Really I do, even when I was elementary school I loved whenever we had to write about something and I adored silent reading time. I’m pretty good at it to. I’ve always taken advanced English classes and did well in them. Now journalism is different then the traditional English writing sort of way but I love it just the same, maybe even a bit more. I’m proud of all the stories I was able to write, record and publish in both news and yearbook. From my more serious new pieces to my nerdy podcast, I’m proud of each and everyone of them.
I’ll admit that I didn’t stay in journalism just for the writing, I also stayed because of the awesome teacher that taught it, Ms. Cardoza. She’s probably the greatest teacher I’ve ever had. She never sugar coats things, she tells you how things are and is always honest with you. She always lends an ear when you want to talk and will always try to understand and help in any way she can. She’s helped me improve not only as a writer but I think as a person as well. She’s helped me see that there’s always two sides to every story and you should always hear both. She taught how to be more confident as well. I was always so shy and quiet but she pushed me out of my comfort zone and showed me to never hold myself back. Now I’m still a quiet person I think that’s just the way I am but my shyness doesn’t exist like it used to and I can interview or just talk to anyone. I appreciate her in more ways than one and I’m going to miss her dearly, but I’m happy to know that she’ll be at Mac to push more Jalynns out of their comfort zone and show them how to be a journalist.
With my time in newspaper I found a home away from home. Walking into c351 everyday and being greeted by Cardie and laughing, eating and fangirling with my staff has been amazing. I’ve been apart of three staffs and I can say that all of them have had the same homey vibe. Each year, even when their we’re a ton of new people, we all grow as close as family. Heck I’m still in contact with some of the staff that had graduated two years ago. That’s how strong the friendships we form are. Even though it was hard I enjoyed being editor these past two years it felt good helping my staffers improve and fix their writing. All staffs had different people from all different walks of life but all of them have felt like my family and I’m glad that I’ve met every single one of them.
Now getting back to what I said in the beginning, I still hope high school won’t be the best years of my life, there’s so much more to the world than being swamped with homework and trying not to cry from stress. Now is the real world all sunshine and no anxiety, of course not. I know this, trust me I’m a journalist. But I’m hoping I’ll live the somewhat comfortable life that I envision for myself in one way or another. However, when I am out there in the real adult world and I look back at what high school was like, all the crushing stress won’t be the only thing I remember. I’ll remember all the days spent with my staffs, my favorite teacher of all time and tons of journalism. I’ll remember all the food days and weird drawings on the whiteboard. I’ll remember the awards we won for UIL and working to get stories done. I’ve loved my time with Mac journalism and I’m going to miss it, but I know it’s in good hands.
See ya around.
P.S I leave my computer to yearbook assistant editor Delaney Rayner. It’s a sweet little macintosh that put up with all my aggressive typing.
