“I had no idea what I was in for”: Maya Martin, Arts & Culture Editor

I don’t know what got into me when Sherman announced to my junior English class that she was starting the school newspaper again and looking for anyone interested in joining. I’ve never been involved in any form of journalism or extracurricular writing throughout high school, but for some reason, I automatically expressed my interest in joining. I had no idea what I was in for, to say the least. I was already involved in and a leader in a multitude of clubs, was taking challenging courses, preparing for colleges and involved in sports, yet I didn’t realize the extra great deal of time and dedication I would be taking on.

The newspaper by far has been the club that I put the most time into, whether it be chasing down people to complete articles on time, editing, writing my own articles or creating and running section meetings. Although it can be a challenge, I can say that the paper has given me skills that will pay off in college and have even paid off in some courses I have already taken.

Last year, the paper and our meetings were mainly held virtually because of the pandemic, but this year we jumped into a complete in-person format. It has been lots of scrambling and chaos, but to say the least, something I have noticed about this paper is although we feel like a mess and an utter chaos on the inside, we somehow manage to always stay on top of things and appear as a well-oiled machine to the rest of the community. Maybe most of us are just control freaks or are just hard on ourselves, but we truly are a dedicated and hardworking team even if there are some slip-ups here and there.

Sometimes I am overwhelmed, and other times I’m stressed, but it’s all rewarding in the end when you get to have section meetings and have fun with your desk members. My favorite memories from this club have been going into our Arts and Culture section meetings every early Wednesday morning and having random discussions about our obscure icebreakers. It was a great way to wake us up in the morning and just have some fun conversation before assigning articles and getting down to our work. Moments like those with my section are what truly ran our desk. It made us closer and easier to talk and work with. Thank you to my awesome section for making this paper an enjoyable time and a great way to finish off high school.