As we approach the end of the school year, and the seniors finish out their last days of high school, the final times as a class together are looming, ready to graduate and move up in the world. Throughout my time as a staff writer, opinion editor and online editor-in-chief on Common Sense, I have grown immensely as a writer and more importantly, a person. Every Friday for all my three years on the staff we have submitted a journal entry, intended to be aimed at slowing down and looking at our work, but now, they can be seen as a time to reflect on the past years and how much we have grown as writers.

To reflect on the time that I have spent on the Common Sense staff, I wanted to share my journal entries from the past year that I have felt were most important in the current events of the school, and how these have now given me something to look back on to my thoughts and feelings during that time. Each journal has created a moment in time that is meaningful and memorable to me and is one practice that I will remember even after I graduate.

9/1/23
2. What worries/concerns are you having right now about the start of school in general? What are you most excited about?
This year, I’m definitely nervous about the workload I have, especially with extracurriculars. However, I am really excited about all the senior activities, like prom and finding out what college I will be going to.

9/8/23
2. How is your Cycle 1 article coming along so far? Are you having any trouble with research or sources? What have you discovered that is interesting to you so far?
My Cycle 1 article is coming along really well. I am excited to write a “letter to the freshman” because I think it is very important to give as much advice to freshmen as possible, to prepare them for the years ahead.

10/13/23
1. How was homecoming? Did you like the new GloCo event? Did you do something else with friends? Or did you take a pass and spend the weekend doing as you preferred?
Homecoming was a lot of fun, especially for my senior year. The new event was a lot more fun than I expected, and it was nice to be there with all my friends. We went out on Saturday night as well, and it was fun to hang out with my friends and celebrate our last homecoming.

10/20/23
2. What extracurricular activity takes up most of your time right now? What do you love about it? What makes it hard?
Right now, cheer is taking up a lot of my time. We are getting ready for counties, and I’ve been spending a lot of time in practice as well as outside of practice making sure everything is prepped and ready to go. Cheer is one of my favorite things to do and I’m so sad that I am not going to be able to do it next year. My time on the team has been one of the best experiences I have been a part of, and the other girls on the team are like my second family.

11/17/23
1. As we approach Thanksgiving , reflect on something in your life you are thankful for.
I’m thankful for the support system I have around me, and for my family always being there when I need them, especially as I go through senior year, and the different emotions going around.

12/15/23
1. Freewrite: This is the last journal before winter break. Tell me whatever is on your mind.
I’m really excited for winter break this year, knowing that it is my last one before I’m off to college. There have been a lot of lasts over the past few weeks and months, and although difficult to think about, it is very exciting. It has been hard to think about leaving high school, however, I am trying to appreciate every moment I have left.

1/19/24
1. Look back over your journalism work from this semester and self-evaluate. What are you most proud of? How did you grow? In what ways did you challenge yourself? How did you grow as a leader?
This semester, I think I have become a much stronger writer and challenged myself with the topics I have written. I have focused more on more difficult topics, as well as things that interest me, and I am very excited to see what next semester will hold. I believe that as a leader, I have grown in many different ways, and I am very excited that I have made progress with the website as well as social media.

2/2/24
1. How does it feel to be a second-semester senior? What are you most excited about and/or worried about for the coming months?
It is honestly so surreal that I am officially a second-semester senior. There is only one more semester left of what I have known for most of my life, and knowing there is such little time left is very scary. Knowing that in less than four months, I will have graduated, chosen where I am going to college, and making decisions that will impact the rest of my life is exciting yet also nerve-wracking to think about.

2/16/24
2. Where are you in the process of finishing your Cycle 7 article? How is it going? What are you proud of? What did you struggle with?
I have officially finished both articles I wrote. This cycle was definitely different, especially due to the fact that I had to edit my team’s articles, as well as work on my own. I was learning along the way with the writers from J1, and I think all of us grew together in working with Flow and editing articles.

2/23/24
1. What are you writing about for Cycle 8? How will this article stretch your skills? How can I support you?
In Cycle 8 I am writing about the SMOB nominees in the form of a news article. I am excited to expand my news skills, as I feel like I often do not write news articles. It will be interesting to cover something that is so important to the MCPS community.

3/15/24
1. What will you be writing about for Cycle 9? How will this assignment stretch your skills? What excites you about it? How can I support you?
In Cycle 9 I will be writing about the importance of extracurricular activities in a student’s social life, not just for college applications. I think that extracurriculars are so important to one’s life, and shouldn’t be disregarded as something that is just for college applications.

4/5/24
1. What will you be writing about for Cycle 10? How will this assignment stretch your skills? What excites you about it? How can I support you?
I’m writing about bias in leadership and choosing students to be in leadership positions. I think that it is such an important topic, and I am consistently trying to get it brought up more as a topic in order to make more changes for our community. It’s so crazy to think that there are only a few more articles left to write in the year!

4/12/24
2. How are you feeling about your role in journalism next year? For seniors – will you work on your college paper or take related courses?
How are we so close to the end already? It feels like yesterday I was getting my first role in newspaper! Next year I hope to either write for my school paper or hopefully take communications classes, one of which I hope will be a writing class. It will definitely be something new, but I’m excited to see what will happen.

4/19/24
1. How did your Cycle 10 go? What was most challenging? What are you most proud of?
I think my Cycle 10 article went really well. There was definitely a lot on my mind when I was thinking about the topic, especially being president of one of the main organizations at Wootton, and it has constantly been on my mind how we can lower the amount of bias that we have in our decision-making process. I’m glad that I got to cover something that is so important to me, especially in the second to last cycle of the year.

5/3/23
2. Seniors: It’s May! You have DAYS left of school. How are you feeling about this? What do you still need to DO before you leave?
It seems absolutely crazy that there are only about 20 more days left. I feel like I’m handling it really well, considering the fact that I honestly don’t want to leave. I feel like I have grown up so much here, and while I know that I will grow more in college and in the future, it’s really weird knowing that there is still so much life left out there. There are SO many things left to do it seems, like college things, but also I know I need to appreciate the last moments I will ever have with my classmates.

5/17/23
2. What are you most excited about and most worried about for the time after graduation?
I am very excited to be graduating, but the time is also bittersweet. It is sad to be saying goodbye to the people I have grown up with, but I am also happy to be growing in the world and in life. Graduating officially means that you are on your own, so it’s very hard to handle that, and although it’s something that is very difficult, I’m excited to see all that my peers and I do in the world.

Throughout every single one of these entries, I have reflected upon my growth as a writer and a person, as well as allowed myself to recognize all that I have accomplished in this school community. I am excited to move on, and although incredibly bittersweet, and I am sad to say goodbye to the classmates who have grown with me, I know that each and every one of us will do great things in the world. Thank you to my friends, for always being there to go to any event with me so I can cover it and write an article. Thank you to my family for being ready to support me in any way I ever needed, and being my rock in the times that weren’t always so solid. To the Common Sense staff and Evva Starr, thank you for allowing me to grow not only as a writer but as a person. For the three years of being on this staff each person on the staff has allowed me to enhance my leadership skills, my knowledge of the school and its students, and my appreciation for each student that walks through the doors of room 242. I will never be able to show my full gratitude for all that I have been able to accomplish with the support of Mrs. Starr, and I will forever be grateful for the impact you have made on me and the school.

If you are a person questioning joining Common Sense and don’t know whether or not you would be a good writer, I highly recommend just joining. I was hesitant at first to take the class going into sophomore year, scared that I wasn’t a good enough writer to be able to cover such important topics, but I have learned so much, and been able to grow outside of my comfort zone even more than before. Common Sense is one of the few reasons that I enjoyed coming to school each and every day, and I am so excited to see all that is to come.