“Dear Diary, today I—”
I have been journaling ever since I learned to write, so what started as a book of blank pages has now transformed into pages overflowing with ink, chronicling my thoughts and experiences. Whether it is to express gratitude, recount memories with friends and family or release the burden of my emotions, I journal because it is medicine for my soul, allowing my mind to roam freely. However, I did not expect this daily habit of mine to lead me to and kindle my passion for journalistic writing.
When I first signed up for the Journalism I course at WCHS, out of my intuition of enjoying writing, I expected it to be structured as a typical English class, entailing grammar and writing-related assignments each week, with the quarterly 30-point essays due at 11:59 pm that are graded according to a strictly defined rubric. It turns out that it was similar to a typical English class in some ways, but more so not in others, requiring the foundational basics of making sense out of a particular arrangement of words in a specific manner, but that was about it. Instead, it was more of a language class. I was learning a new dialect of English, having to memorize a plethora of AP Style grammar rules, such as forbidding the classic Oxford comma rule (I still do not understand why this is a rule) that previous English teachers had ingrained in me. After drilling the standard grammatical and format-related rules of an article, the course took an unconventional pivot: It became a “choose your own adventure” course as I was in charge of deciding what I wanted to learn and report about, from the topic covered to the minuscule specifics of the type of lead to use, and there was not a “one-size fits all” rubric that articles needed to adhere to since every article is differentially unique in content and voice. This turning point uncovered a new, profound level of freedom I had never experienced before in any class, only ever by journaling.
Now, having been an editor for The Observer for the last three years, I have realized that my journaling had been a precursor to journalism all along as I have essentially been writing “articles” by untangling my ideas into plain English and “interviewing” myself to write my journal entries. The only difference was that my writing represented the voice of the WCHS community instead of my own. With the responsibility of managing The Observer’s online website as the Online Content Editor this year, I am grateful and honored to have been able to contribute to the editing and publication process of articles online. Although the objective of this class is to produce tangible newspapers, in my very unbiased opinion, I believe the online website component of The Observer has been under-credited for it serves as WCHS’ everlasting digital diary. With my next chapter of life at Johns Hopkins University coming to a start, I will be unable to pick up a copy of our monthly issues, but I will for sure be reading the articles online!
As this article is wrapping up, I would like to express my gratitude, though please note that my words fall short of encompassing the scope of my appreciation (since the article still has to fit on a page). First, thank you to Isabella and Anne for being such a great online team to work with, and I wish you nothing but the best. Cece, I am so happy that we got to share our love for food, from rating chili together to devouring our Jersey Mike’s subs and justifying the scrumptiousness of Panera’s food (I can’t believe some people classify it as cafeteria food). Rebecca and Leah, from stressing about our AP classes and where we would go to college to getting into our dream schools and singing our hearts out and dancing the night away at prom, I am so proud of us and grateful for our friendship and can not wait to celebrate more! And last but certainly not least, thank you, Ms. Zitnik, for all you have done so that we can make The Observer happen.
Well, this is it. I dreaded this moment, but I am now writing the last paragraph of my final Observer article. What a full circle moment it is to have this article written similar to a journal entry. I can’t seem to settle on a way to end this, but maybe it’s because it’s only the end of the beginning as I look forward to writing for the student newspaper at university. Congratulations to all my fellow seniors, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors!
“—wrote my last Observer article.”
