By TYLER MUSE, Editor in Chief 

I don’t know how I am writing this, but apparently I am supposed to accept that fact that I am 18 and have to graduate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s time; I need to move on to bigger and better things, but how did it possibly happen so fast? I’ve been told over and over again, “the four years fly by,” but I never believed it. How could four years possibly “fly by?” Well it did, and here I am writing another thing I never thought I would be doing.

When I started high school way back when, I was this shy, introverted, didn’t-belong type of kid. I didn’t have many friends and I kept to myself for the most part. I would work by myself  and I wouldn’t participate in class. Oh, how the tables have turned! Finishing high school, I am one of the most outgoing and loud kids, plus I found where I belonged. You might ask, how did this happen? I joined Cheerleading and I performed on stage for Drama Club, two extracurriculars that forced me to break my shell. Joining these two extracurriculars made my high school experience. If it wasn’t for these two things, I could still be that shy, introverted kid that no one knew. I try to think “what if,” but I don’t want to think about what could’ve happened; instead I am grateful and appreciative for what did happen. 

Now, talking about journalism, this class helped me figure out what I wanted to do in life. If  asked me what I wanted to do freshman year, I would’ve given you an answer, but it wasn’t a truthful answer. When I joined, I just wanted to try something new. I wasn’t that big of a fan of writing and honestly I didn’t know much about how news worked. When I realized I could write about the stuff I liked, like entertainment, I thought that was pretty cool. I started out by writing strict music reviews and creating charts. I branched out and started writing about different things and interviewing people and fell in love with what I was doing. I got to write about things that mattered to me, and people acknowledged it. Whether they agreed or not, my opinion was being heard. 

My personal best article to date is an article I wrote about Max Kroell when he was running for School Board. I ran into some issues, but that gave me a taste of what being an actual journalist was like. While I served in the position of “editor in chief” this year, I got another taste of being a journalist and I still enjoyed it. I discovered so much about what I liked just by this one class, and it helped me realize what I wanted to do in my life career-wise.

I’m finishing up by saying don’t take high school for granted. It really does fly by. You will be done and moving on to real life in a blink of an eye. Try something new. Break your comfort zone. I promise you that fight you got into with Karen at lunch does not matter. Who knows…you might discover who you really are just by doing something new.