When I joined newspaper, three years ago, I never would’ve thought that it would lead to all of the success and joy it has brought me. Some of the best times of my high school career have been in the newspaper room with my peers. Many friendships and core memories from my high school career, all started in the newspaper room just a few years ago.

Being in newspaper has taught me a lot, and it has made me an immensely better writer than when I started. I found a love for writing sports and reporting on all of the students who put in so much hard work for their respective sports.

I’ve also been assigned other miscellaneous stories on other activities occurring at Gibson Southern, and it has been rewarding seeing my progress in those areas as well. 

Throughout all of the interviews, I’ve done in this class, I have met so many new people, and I’ve seen so many new perspectives. Also, being able to make TikTok’s last year was another great way for me to connect with the student body and show students the fun side of journalism. 

I’ve had the privilege of seeing the newspaper class grow immensely since I first showed up three years ago. It is awesome to see so many new students being excited about journalism and wanting to expand such a great program. Being able to take a field trip to see the news station over in Henderson was very unique and it was cool to see the behind-the-scenes of how things operate. I enjoyed seeing how much work went into their journalism and seeing what they do in order to accomplish their stories. There are so many different paths you can take in journalism and it can open so many doors for you in your life. 

Starting out in the class, it took some adjusting to get used to the formatting and technicalities of it all, but once I got the hang of it, I started to thrive. All of the stories I did at the beginning, helped pave the way for me to be successful here as I wrap up my career at Gibson Southern.

The Southerner has adapted over the few years that I’ve been here and has seen numerous new people begin their careers in journalism. We have been able to reach so many new eyes, and have been able to impact a lot of lives in our community through our writings. I encourage everyone to at least give newspaper a thought because if you’re in the same boat as me, it turned out to be way more than what I imagined it to be.