During my sophomore year, all of the language-arts based courses available at John Adams were presented to my English class. I remember finding the Newspaper course, where students could write for The Tower, the most interesting, but when it came time to schedule classes, I decided not to take it. After a year of debating and befriending a few student-reporters, as well as encouraging words from my other friends, peers and English teachers, I decided to sign up to write for the newspaper my senior year of high school. As a soon-to-be graduate, I can now say that The Tower has been one of the coolest high school experiences, and has provided me with the opportunities to not only connect with my school and the local community, but also to enhance my writing abilities. It is an experience that will stand out in my memory of my time at John Adams High School, and I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to take part in such a long-standing tradition of student media.
Over my two semesters with The Tower, I was able to publish a total of 15 stories, with topics ranging from controversially ranking holiday foods, to recapping the Girl’s Cross Country season and to even more serious news such as the California wildfires and the funding of medical research. My favorite focus, as seen through its total of four stories, was music recommendations, predictions and ratings. Most specifically, I enjoyed writing my album reviews of “CHROMAKOPIA” by Tyler, The Creator and “Balloonerism” by Mac Miller. I am insanely thankful for Ms. Taylor’s encouragement and support of the staff to involve their interests and voices within their writing. The creative freedom given to reporters was something I found extremely helpful, as I was able to find motivation to write due to my interest in the subject matter. I am so, so thankful for my amazing editor, Haven, whose patience and guidance through my struggles with AP style writing were beyond generous. Despite my initial struggles, I was also motivated to learn more about formatting and stylization of writing in general, which I expect will be immensely helpful in whatever the future throws my way.
