Senior Columns

GOODBYE TO ROOM 144

PHOTOS | EMMA LAZARCZYK ISABEL COPELAND

The question I often get asked so many times by so many of my non-journalism friends is "Why do you keep doing it if it is overwhelming?" My simple answer: it is something I love to put so much effort into.

Being on deadline and working long hours after school may not seem fun, but when I get time to just grind out some hours to see our finished project, it is truly rewarding.

Freshman year I was absolutely dreading taking intro to journalism, I was too afraid to get out of my comfort zone, but it turned out to be the best thing for me. Something about it spoke to me, and I ended up becoming a writer my sophomore year.

I remember sitting in the back of the class with my best friend, who was also a sophomore, and there were seven seniors in front of me. I felt intimidated by all of them, not for a moment did I ever think that I would one day be standing in their place looking at my staff of people.

I never knew how much I would love walking to Room 144 to see the people I can be myself around.

As a junior – the only returning staff member of the newspaper – I was overwhelmed by what the year would bring, especially since I had taken on the role of editor-in-chief. I didn’t know that by the end of the year I would be able to call these 10 people family.

Being an editor has taught me so much. I have had my moments where it has been tough, but being able to come to my staff for ideas and really just anything I needed is something that I have found soothing.

As the end of my time comes on the staff I will always think of my staff in everything I do. I can stand up in front of them and talk for hours because they give me confidence, and each of them holds a special place in my heart.

Out of all the years on staff, senior year has to be my favorite because of the memories I hold with these 13 people.

I would like to thank my mom for telling me to take journalism freshman year because without that decision I would not be where I am today.

And lastly I would like to thank Mrs. McCambridge for putting up with me and for teaching me valuable lessons, whether it be about journalism or not.

KATE MOORES

PHOTO | NATALIE MARTINEZ

Is it more important where your roots are or where you bloom?

As my senior year and time on the Miegan nears its end, this is a question that I have thought long about. Like most seniors, I’ve wondered where I will find myself in the next few years and it has brought me back to where I started.

On the first day of freshman year, I walked into a school full of completely unfamiliar faces. I was the only person in my class that had come from my grade school, and as someone who was not the best at conversing with new people, I was not looking forward to four years in this incompatible environment. I kept my head down in the hallways, looking at my feet as they took me straight from class to class without stopping to talk to anyone.

Freshman year, I knew I loved writing, it was something I was good at and enjoyed doing. Sophomore year, I signed up for journalism, expecting it to be something that I could use to improve my writing skills and see if it was something that I could turn into a passion.

When I found out that my “Lolo,” grandpa in Tagalog, had been a journalist and wrote an entire memoir, this only fueled my interest in journalism and a chance to carry on his legacy. My roots, spreading to the Philippines and back, began to sprout into a desire to go into journalism. The first step in Recently during my fourth hour TA in the guidance office, Mrs. Schmidtberger was looking at our old files from meetings throughout the past four years. She read everyone the notes she had taken as the timer blinked that we had a mere 36 days left in the background. She finally opened up my file: “Kate Moores wants to go far away for college, likes to read and write and is thinking about doing journalism in the future.”

Four years later, I am writing my goodbye letter for the school paper, about to transition to Mizzou’s paper, the Columbia Missourian. Despite the years and changes high school has presented me with, I returned to what my freshman year self had felt was right.

Back then, the guidance office was intimidating to my underclassman self. I only went to occasionally discuss the broad future, something I had never put much thought into. A few years after that first meeting, I had another one, and college was closer on the horizon than it had ever been. I was told how to prepare for the ACT, and that I needed to begin forming a resume for the schools I wanted to apply to.

I then headed to faith family with my now teacher Mrs. McCambridge, where I told her that I wanted to join the school paper. My experience? A journalism class sophomore year that I hated (sorry Mrs. M.) And now I was going to be a staff writer for my senior year.

All it took was four issues of the Miegan to convince me that this was right. Like my freshman year self predicted, writing is for me and so is journalism. While I may be staying in-state (young Kate would’ve hated that one), I know that the future doesn’t feel so blank anymore. Sitting in guidance today, working on this column while “33 days left” now blinks behind me, I finally feel good about my future. It just took a reminder of what the past was like.

doing this was joining the Miegan.

The gifts that I have gained through the Miegan are irreplaceable. Of course, I have learned so much about journalism and writing, but the true gain goes so much deeper than that. Each member of the staff holds a special place in my heart. One hundred percent, I have roots planted in the overheated, fluorescent-lit journalism room. I have spent countless hours in that room battling writer’s block and making lastminute edits, but I have also made so many of my most treasured memories of my time at Miege.

No matter how stressful the amount of work or how impending the deadline, I always looked forward to newspaper class because of the people who were in it and the laughs I knew we would have together. Even as a writer, there are no words for me to describe how much the Miegan editors and staff mean to me and how much I will miss them.

As the nobody I was freshman year, I never would have thought I’d feel this way senior year. I’m so grateful I do, because it means that what I’ve gained here at Miege is of such significance that it will be something I’ll miss.

The answer to my beginning question is this: where you bloom results from where your roots are. And your roots are everywhere you have ever felt that you have been impacted or have made an impact.

Where you bloom — where I will bloom — all depends on how those roots are used to grow.

AVA BELCHEZ

The metallic banging of locker doors surrounded me as I gathered my school belongings, getting ready to head home for the day. Suddenly, my friend Colin Batliner tapped my shoulder and handed me a neatly written crimson letter that read, “Bishop Miege Newspaper Staff Invitation.”

I am going to be honest, I looked at it with slight disgust. Writing was not my favorite. Never before in my life had I imagined myself writing with the intention to publish and inform others. I do not want to say that I hated the idea, but I deeply disliked it.

However, despite all of that, I thought, “You never know until you try it.” So, I reluctantly assured Colin I would do it.

I do not know what drove me to say yes, but I am forever grateful that I did. Joining the newspaper squad helped me further develop my writing skills and also learn something more important. Newspaper has shown me the key to success — a great team. This year has brought some challenges, but challenges are no match for a team

COLIN BATLINER

that functions like the Miegian. Each member shares their support and care for one another, which made me feel so welcome. Despite not being in the same classroom as the rest of the newspaper staff, I still felt their friendliness and willingness to share laughter, even if it was only in the groupchat.

I was not able to be in the same hour as my fellow staff members because my schedule included many classes that I could not switch around.

In addition to friends, the Miegian also gave me some much needed space away from my normal life.

I have a curriculum full of difficult classes, and my newspaper hour became one of my safe places where I could simply relax and write down my thoughts to feature them as opinion pieces.

This year has been wondrous and adventurous, the Miegian being a large reason for this. My final piece of advice would be to expand your horizons. Try as many positive things as possible, no matter how hard they look.

You will look back on these things in the future and smile.

JULIAN GALLEGOS

PHOTO | EMMA LAZARCZYK

One boy, ten girls — that was the ratio of our staff my entire first year working on the newspaper.

I’ve spent two years on staff, two completely different years; junior year and half of my senior year, I was the only guy on the staff.

For a while, this made me really uncomfortable and was extremely awkward for me, and I probably made everyone else feel the same. Junior year, I came into class and sat on a side of the room by myself and went pretty much every day without saying a word to anyone in the class besides Mrs. McCambridge.

I enjoyed doing the work but I was always the first person out of the room when the bell rang and would never ask for help from anybody.

I had to leave early from class one day for a track meet, and I accidentally exited my page without saving it.

A normal person would probably ask someone else to help them, but not awkward junior-year me.

I decided to remake everything I had worked all class on in five minutes and not tell anybody about it at all. Unsurprisingly, it turned out pretty poorly.

Going into senior year, I remember telling someone that I had three AP classes first semester, but newspaper was the class I was looking forward to the least.

Thankfully, I realized that everyone else on staff was just as awkward as I am, “aco taco” as Isabel Copeland would say, and I became much less quiet and way more willing to ask for help and give help to the rest of the staff.

I became a lot more comfortable with everyone and actually came to class and got to know the girls on staff.

When Caleb Oblepias and Kellan O’Connell joined the staff for second semester, it wasn’t even that big of a deal because it didn’t feel weird to me anymore being the only guy in the room.

Last year, the girls on staff were just classmates who I saw every other day, but now that I am graduating soon I think I can say that everyone on staff has become a friend to me.