My sophomore year, I signed up for the class titled newspaper thinking that writing would be a potential career path for me. However, as a shy 10th grader going through the Covid-19 pandemic, I didn’t know what the school year would entail. Now a senior, after being a part of the Tower newspaper for three years, the experience I have had has exceeded my expectations and then some. 

Over the past three years, this class has promoted group discussion and the evaluation of the occasional conspiracy theory, taught me different writing styles and tips, and given me an outlet to geek out on various sports topics. From my sophomore experience alone, I knew that the Tower fostered the interests of unique individuals unlike myself, but also acted as a self-preserving community of inquisitive human beings. Moving to my junior year, or the dark ages of the newspaper during my tenure, the class shrunk drastically and the future of the publication was uncertain. Out of the fifteen or so students who were enrolled in the class the previous year, most of them graduated, leaving 6 students including myself to keep the online publication going. Of course, our teacher helped in the process, but over that school year, the Tower stayed alive because of the hard work and dedication of those 6 students. Now a senior, 5 of those 6 students, including myself, make up the seniors in the class who will be graduating in the following weeks. After promoting the Tower to the younger audience at the high school, the class has exploded in number as almost 30 students are currently enrolled. The online publication has had a lot of success this year, and along with an Instagram account, I can confidently state that I am leaving the Tower better than I found it. Over the past three years, I was given the opportunity to write about my passions, specifically sports, and made some close friends along the way. I learned from former students how to write from a professional perspective and got to meet student journalists from the Observer, the publication at the University of Notre Dame. I am now included in a group of numerous students who took this class, discovered or validated their passion for writing, and decided to major in journalism in college. The tight-knit group of seniors that I will be graduating alongside have made the experience so valuable and the relationship I have had with my teacher, Mr. Nowicki, has been a highlight of the class as well. Now as we part ways to pursue our interests in college, I wish my fellow seniors the best. 

As the Sports Editor at the Tower, I will be attending the University of Missouri as a Journalism major, but I will continue to write about sports and other interests in college. To use an analogy familiar to most, I will be passing the baton to Sofia Nevala as she will become the next Sports Editor in the upcoming school year. Nevala has grown as a writer over the course of the school year, especially in sports writing, and she has impressed me and the leadership team. Sofia is worthy of the promotion and I am sure she will do a great job following my departure. Overall, I am proud of the work I have done for the Tower and look forward to reading the publication once I am gone. As mentioned earlier, to my fellow graduating seniors, peers, classmates, and teachers, I wish you all the best, you will be missed.