I will never forget the day of Freshman year that Mrs. Digmann stormed up to me in the middle of Freshman hallway and asked if I wanted to be a journalist. I meekly said yes because, as we all know, Digmann was the scary senior teacher at the end of the hall that often yelled and always slammed her door. Little did I know, that day would drastically change my life.

Over the past three years I’ve grown to love the journalism room more than any other room in the high school. It has been a place for me to air my frustrations, celebrate my victories, and cultivate my passion for writing. I’ve made incredible friendships with people I probably never would have talked to otherwise and built stronger bonds with the people I already knew. In that room I found the thing I want to spend the rest of my life doing, no matter how many times I tried to talk myself out of it.

Now if you would’ve told my younger self that I would end up wanting to be a journalist, she probably would have laughed in your face and said that you were a liar. That little girl used to think that news and politics were boring and only pertained to old people with nothing else to do. Yet, here I am several years later planning on doing just that, and I have a feeling that it is never going to change.

Because of the Spud I have found the greatest gift I could ever be given: my future. This class has taught me so much about myself and the kind of person I want to be. It has given me so many opportunities to expand myself not only as a writer, but as a human as well. Because of this class I’ve learned how to piece together a story through weeks of hard work and research, but also how to write a story in half an hour…. but we’re not going to talk about that. It has done so much for me and I cannot thank the people in it enough. Without you, I never would have learned half of the things I did.  

However, there is one person that I want to thank above everyone else. Mrs. Digmann. Now, I’m going to make this personal because I know you’re going to be reading this. I want to thank you for expanding my mind and teaching me that I am going to be successful. Without you, I probably never would have even tried to pursue this class or this career. I also want to thank you for teaching me how special I am and for always making me feel worth it. I could not have asked for a better human being to have such an influence on my life and hold such a special place in my heart.

As I sit here staring at my computer screen, I still can’t believe that this is it. My time as the Editor-in-Chief of the Spud has officially run out. It’s been a blast and, while I’m sad that it’s ending, I’m still extremely excited for what the future holds. My story doesn’t end here, and I know there are so many good things coming my way. So with that in mind, here’s to all the stories already written and to the stories yet to come.