The first moment that I stepped into Freedom High School, I was absolutely terrified. About a million thoughts were flying through my head: where is my locker? Why is everyone happy to be here right now? Will that person be my new best friend? Oh, he is cute. Did she just call soda, “pop”? Where is a giant hole to hide in when you need it? Why isn’t the world collapsing right now? Oh wait- it is. Thankfully my world collapsed less and less each day, and I was quickly able to accept FHS as my new home for the next three years. I didn’t think it would be that difficult to move from a small, rural high school to an even smaller, more rural high school. At my school in Central New York I felt that I had a pretty successful freshman year; I knew a lot of people, I was involved, I didn’t get stuffed into lockers by any upperclassmen, etc. After a few days of getting lost and forgetting names, I realized that adjusting would be harder than I thought; it was just like freshman year all over again. As a decently responsible sophomore in Mr. Hartman’s communications class, newspaper articles were thrown at me partially against my will. This was partly because I was a brown-noser, and partly because I was terrified of all upperclassmen and had difficulty just saying no. No one really told me how to write them, I just did. Ironically enough, in communications my favorite thing to do was pick out the obnoxious errors in the newspaper each month and openly mock the authors for their mediocrity. Like I knew. By the end of my first year at FHS, I was convinced I could do a much better job, and decided to schedule the newly-created Print Media Workshop elective into my junior year schedule. As Copy Editor, all I had to do was find the grammatical errors in the issue. My rude awakening was met at 1:30 am the night before all articles were due to the section editors for layout, and I was only halfway done. It was evident from that point on that I had underestimated the job. Everything about the class was hard for me that year: learning how to write articles from an objective standpoint, keeping up with the deadlines, attending almost every school event to take pictures, and finding ways not to be mediocre. But I learned like everyone else did, and eventually was able to expand on my creativity, which is something I never even thought I had. About halfway through my junior year, I knew that I wanted to be the next editor-in-chief. I knew there were more efficient ways for the writers and editors to communicate, and I wanted the chance to change things for the better. For the rest of the year I took every assignment that no one wanted. I spent my junior prom taking pictures of everyone else having fun, and I stayed up until 4 am to take pictures of some other seniors’ Project Graduation. It was safe to say that working hard paid off for me when I got the position I worked for. This year was so much better than I ever thought it would be. Everyone in the room – those who lasted the year – was willing to go the extra mile and help each other out. Print Media was everything I could want in a class because I was able to work hard and be rewarded for my hard work. Although, the bittersweet reward of my efforts was always more work… I wouldn’t have gotten the experience I now have without Mr. Hartman. He never gave up on me at times when I had given up on myself, and he pushed me and our publication to its fullest potential this year. Mostly no one realizes the countless hours he spends in his room every day, both before and after school, to help kids and to constantly make his classroom a better learning experience. He is the reason that our newspaper is what it is, and I could not thank him enough for teaching me more than I ever thought I could learn from one class. Graduation is right around the corner, and seniors are already starting down the slippery sentimental slope of strolling down memory lane. As I look back on high school, I can’t help but think about this newspaper and everything that being a part of it has done for me. Experiencing my writing being displayed for anyone to see truly honed my attention to detail. Working with other writers and having strict deadlines were extremely overbearing responsibilities, but getting through the hard times and the passed deadlines were what made me a better writer, editor and student overall.