By Armita Rohani
What a heck of a year—in both good and bad ways, with and without this club. What a year (take a free period during your senior year kids). If I were to travel back in time to late August, where the younger version of me was planning out the year for newspaper…I don’t even know what I’d tell her. But alas, regrets will come and go, and a stroll down memory lane is never gone unappreciated.
I got into Newspaper Club my sophomore year, after an angel-in-disguise by the name of Mrs. Angela Lanzone lassoed me into it. It was enough of the push I needed to dive head first into the club, churning out articles by the dozens when I was done with that season. There were some pretty great memories with that too, back in the days of Colleen Meosky and Amanda Ojeda, where we still had Bagel Jays and I accidentally threw a knife across the table (I had my reasons…congrats again Colleen). Back then I had time to write articles, and I thoroughly enjoyed writing all of them…truly, I do mean it. There was also this desire amongst club members to actually be in the club, not for some fancy college app resume, but out of enjoyment and involvement. In my personal opinion, the 2022-2023 season was the best that newspaper has been these past four years, but then again I may be biased. After all, I was just a writer back then.
Moving on to 2023-2024, as the East Section Editor and unofficial website manager…I was part of a dream team. Shout out goes to my dearest coworkers and friends, Angelina Tang, Eileen Wang, Pen Fang, and Emma Wu, we made a pretty rad team. Funny story as to how I got my job, no one interviewed for East Editor, so Mr. Huber reached out and gave it to me. As for the website…well let’s just say that no one else really did it. Junior year was more jam packed, so writing articles was very on and off, but I still wrote (which is more than I can say for myself right now)! Working with those four made the year fly by, and made sticking with the paper so much more worthwhile. To put the cherry on top, I also got to M.C. for coffeehouses, which I did get booed off the stage once but other than that I killed. Doing that was probably my highlight for the club, and I still miss my M.C.ing days. The food we served that year was phenomenal: Italian night, Brinner, and Asian Fusion will always hold a special place in my heart (especially Olive Garden breadsticks and beef and broccoli from China King…there is literally nothing better in coffeehouse history).
Senior year, no frees, EIC, 7 AP’s. Wow. Don’t try this at home kids. Yes, there were rough patches (a LOT of them), and we may have left the club in crippling debt for next year (sorry Hank), but it was fun. The meetings, timbits, scrambling to put Marq together because we are way past the deadline, was (somehow) all fun. If it weren’t for the memories of Angie and Colleen, my amazing predecessors who set the bar up so high, I wouldn’t have made it. Although we only got 11 issues out, they were some of the best issues this club has ever seen, written by some of the best writers, and I couldn’t have asked for a better team: Sophia, Natalie, Jessica D, Will, Hank, and Mr. Huber, much appreciation goes out to all of you (although you could have texted me back more Mr. Huber).
I can’t believe my time with News is coming to an end…and that I even survived this year. I have complete faith in next year’s crew: Hank, Will, Jess, Aarav, you guys got this. Be there for each other through all the highs and lows and I promise you will be all set. I will miss all of you forevermore, and just know that my life is better having you guys be a part of it.
Peace out,
Armita