My 8th grade year, some staff and students from McDaniel came in to talk about high school with my class. When I got home that day, I immediately hopped on my computer and went through the entire electives slideshow multiple times. When I landed on Intro to Journalism, the slide had a video on it. I watched and knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of the pathway. The kids were joking around with their teacher, making a funny skit about their program. Little did I know they’d be my future Editor-in-Chiefs and adviser. 

I was nervous about joining because I hadn’t heard of anyone else joining that class until I talked to a girl named Aria Peters. She was my neighbor, and we didn’t talk much or at all at that point, but this was the start. Aria explained to me that she was interested in the program because of her brother, Maxson. He was a student at McDaniel who was currently in the newspaper. We agreed we would both join no matter what and would stick together. What Aria and I didn’t know was that we would stick together for the next four years.

These past four years have been filled with so many memories and lots of bonding time. My peers in class quickly turned into my friends.

 We had a blast exploring New York City together, running around Times Square, dancing with strangers in front of the library and eating the big red (very spicy) pepper while a man screamed “All my life I had to fight” with a boom box. I suspect he was a huge Kanye fan. 

We put an insane amount of effort every production night, making sure the paper was what we wanted. 70% of our conversations ended in laughter over fresh spring rolls that Harvey would trek to get. We would be so over tired that by the time production night ended, we had one brain cell split amongst us. 

In the early days of newspaper, I had Oracle alumni paving the way. They displayed how to take class seriously while still implementing humor such as an absurd amount of inside jokes, which was pretty meta (If you know, you know). The alumni always seemed to include us underclassmen, whether that was an invite to a Tabor party or going out for ice cream. We of course drove the iconic Tucson. 

This year went by really fast, which I am bitter sweet about because I really enjoyed this year’s staff. I wish I had more time with them. With that I’d like to thank Aria Peters, Jack McManus, Eban Slate, Ricardo Tuz Aviles, Veda Gordon, Em Lake, Emmie Liu, Sam Kilburn, Harvey Spindor, Brylee Scott, Paige Gilmore, Emma Evans, Liv Fetters, Lucia Ceballos, Mezmer Lapour, Mia Belaunzaran, Anastasia Espinoza, Wanying Liu, Opal Sarsgaard, and last but not least, Miss Sb.