The idea of pursuing the Oracle didn’t just come to me in a vision. As I forecasted for my freshman year classes, I had a few empty elective slots, and my parents helped me decide my future. I was a strong writer and had an interest in photography and design. While Foundations of Design felt like a natural choice, I wasn’t as sure about Intro to Journalism. But over the course of my first year at McDaniel, as I learned about the vast world of journalism, I fell in love. 

I made friends with the other freshmen in my class. Jack, Aria and Emma. When I had a scheduling conflict and didn’t end up with Newspaper in my schedule the next year, they asked me if I’d switch my schedule to return. It was too late, but my counselor cleared me anyway due to my clear responsibility as a copy editor in the class. My strength, unsurprisingly, was photography, while I struggled with getting good, or even enough, news interviews. I prided myself on my copy editing prowess, catching every mistake at its source. 

I was keen on scraping my way up the newspaper hierarchy and dreaming about what my future positions may be. I took a liking to feature writing during my sophomore year, and it became my sort of beat inside the classroom that propelled me to pursue the Feature Editor role during my junior year. 

One of my favorite parts of newspaper has been the production nights. Even staying at school late doesn’t feel too bad when you have a community, people you can laugh and eat and design with. I learned perseverance and clever page design. I gained leadership confidence as I went through the reps of page design. I also thought of ways that the process could be improved. 

Going into senior year, I wanted to become online editor more than any other position because I felt confident about my design skills and found all the little ways to improve the layout and function of the Oracle website. But when I was interviewed for my senior year role and it was revealed that I was going to be Print Editor, it was a little hard to take at first. But I slowly became more confident as I envisioned my future in my new role. Even with my busy senior year schedule, I kept production nights a priority, and side by side the bond I formed with the other students grew stronger as my leadership skills did. Finally, I was able to spread all my journalism and InDesign knowledge to the next generation of Oracle writers and editors. Years after I had taken in all I knew from previous editors, the cycle became complete. 

I would like to thank my mentors in class over the years, especially Lincoln Wheeler and Sebastian Gracie-Fultz. You guys have trained me to be as great as I am now. Also shoutout to my table-mate junior year, Zay, who always had an eye for design. And thanks again to the OGs–Jack, Aria and Emma–for always being there with me for all things journalism–related. And this sendoff wouldn’t be complete without mentioning our school’s incredible advisor, Ms. SB. You have encouraged me to step up and challenge myself at every stage of high school, so thank you for that. If there is one thing you should take away from this, it’s to take the risk, the path yet to be traveled, if you’re on the fence. New experiences are always worth it in the end!