I remember the first time I thought about joining Newspaper–it was the final months of my junior year. Summer was just around the corner, and I was deciding between electives for the next year. It came down to a few classes: Newspaper, Video Production, and Digital Photography. There was also another one that I totally forgot about and definitely would’ve taken called Rapid Prototype, but anyways, it was down to those few electives, and I ultimately chose Newspaper for a few important reasons:

For one, Newspaper is a zero period, meaning that I could free up my schedule even more, allowing me to have two free periods in the day, since I was only taking five classes. And also, I had a few friends applying to Newspaper too, who would make the class fun even if the actual work turned out to be uninteresting –which it didn’t. However, most of those friends all forgot to submit their applications on time, so that ended up not mattering. But the biggest reason why I wanted to join Newspaper was because I wanted to take pictures like Spiderman does. I thought that would be cool, since Spiderman solves crimes and stuff, and he also takes photos for the Newspaper. So basically, that was my main inspiration for joining the school Newspaper.

Unfortunately, when I started my next year, I chose not to be a photographer, because I had no real experience taking professional photos. Heartbreaking, but I moved on. I ended up being a regular staff writer, and left my dream of becoming Spiderman behind. From then on, I just treated Newspaper like every other class, with the added benefit of being more like a study hall than a class. I would just talk to people all day instead of doing my articles, and it became a very fun place to hang out. Mrs. Alvarez was instantly super nice and funny, and made the class all the more fun. She is probably the nicest teacher I have had at school so far. I really appreciate the environment she cultivated in the Newspaper classroom.

The Newspaper staff were all very kind and welcoming to new members, and made us feel at home. I quickly felt like a pro at writing articles; it was like it came naturally to me. However, sometimes I really didn’t want to write and the articles were due the next day, which took some effort to get over. But besides those few times I really enjoyed the writing process.

I think that over the course of the past year, I have learned a lot from the Newspaper class that I wouldn’t have learned anywhere else. Not even just news stories–the class taught me some life lessons, like how to wake up early in time for zero period, how to manage my time with longform projects like the articles I write, and how to find something deeper to talk about when it seems like there is very little to discuss. 

I would say that Newspaper was an important part of my high school career. I joined in the final year of high school, but I still gained a lot from the class, and I would say it made more of an impact than other electives I have taken. I can barely remember what classes I took in my freshman through junior years, and the ones I do remember were either around as interesting and rewarding Newspaper. That isn’t to say that I made no memories in those other classes, it’s just that they had less impact on me than Newspaper. Well, that’s not the case for AP Environmental Science, which made me want to become an actual environmental scientist, but that class is mostly an outlier.

Anyway, that’s it for me. Goodbye ANHS, I’m gonna go to Santa Cruz for college so see ya!