Kevin's Korner: to the new Opinion Editor

By: Kevin Monjarrez, Opinion Editor

With tears in my eyes and a keyboard in hand, I must reluctantly announce my retirement. My final year in highlights and my first as opinion editor has been a blast, memorable in more ways than one, and I’ll cherish all the moments writing Kevin’s Korner for years to come. Fortunately, while I am gone, the opinion section remains, and I’m extremely glad I get to pass it on to Sharon Florez, someone who I’m sure will take the section well past the (very, very high) bar I set.

To lead opinion is a heavy task, being the largest section in the magazine with the most room for error. Every issue there will be a disaster, but through this, you will learn not only to cope with stress, but ride that wave of stress all the way to the finish line. I’m sure there will be days where you will want to pull your hair out and punch a hole through your very slow laptop, but fret not. While these are heavy burdens we set upon you, with your commitment to perfection, I’m sure you’ll take to the job quickly.

What I’m most eager for you to take over though, is Kevin’s Korner. This column has been the height of my highlights career, and has been voted “The Best Part of highlights” by 2019-2020 opinion editors anonymous. It is an opportunity to write about whatever you want; a liberty which I had never been afforded in my years of high school outside of my Extended Essay, which is considerably less fun to write. I’m eager to see where you take this freedom, even if you use it to rename the column.

I’m tempted to give you tips and pointers, but I think I’ll hold back, both because it would insult your talent, and the problems I encountered were very unique and named Dilan Denham. One piece of advice I will give you though is to enjoy your time to the fullest. It’ll be a roller coaster of emotions, but make sure to have fun with it. It’ll go by so fast, you’d swear it only lasted three-fourths of the year.