So I was in the hallway talking down Brayden from Chuluota who thought we were targeting him personally in a story—

 

So I was leaving my physics class for my second meeting with the principal in two weeks—

 

So I was in the back room with the editors brainstorming replacements for the story that appeared to have been artificially generated—

 

So I was fielding angry comments from my friends as they read the article that we had published about Charlie Kirk—

 

So I was the editor-in-chief of a high school newspaper. Being a firefighter used to be a dream of mine, but I never quite imagined the kind of fires I would have to put out.

 

I joined the newspaper angry, tired and 15 years old. I only wanted to write opinions, and doing so scratched a particular itch, so I decided this was the meaning of student journalism: to care strongly, loudly and in a specific direction. We wrote sports stories because they were fun, news stories because we were expected to and feature stories for God knows what reason. 

 

But I’ve learned a lot since then. Each year, surrounded by 12 intelligent, interesting writers each with a thousand different stories to tell, and each with passions for different areas of reporting, it would have been difficult not to gain a broader appreciation for student journalism. And that's when I began to realize that change doesn't happen because of angry people. It happens because of curious ones. The most impactful stories I've written or edited or read have all involved long processes of research and interviews. And lots of questions. When I was sitting outside of the principal's office, waiting to interview him for the first time (about the removal of pride flags—far from an easy topic to discuss), instead of fuming with outrage, I was fidgeting with anticipation. I wanted answers more than anything, and I wanted to share them with the school.

 

So these days, I'm a bit less angry, a bit more tired and a lot less 15 years old. I'm a senior in high school and the editor-in-chief. People expect a school newspaper to cover club meetings and sports wins, and to write editorials about school lunch—and while we do all of those things, I want my staff to feel comfortable doing more. We cover the kinds of things that make parents raise their eyebrows and give teachers and students alike something to think about. I want my staff to leave the class asking questions, pursuing information and expressing their opinions, and I want them to gain the confidence to not feel intimidated when others try to shut them down for doing so.

 

That’s why I try to set an example by writing about controversial topics (everything from social media bans to transgender students to Luigi Mangione) and encouraging them to do the same. That’s why I go out of my way to defend both my own stories and theirs when they face judgment, censorship and hate. That’s why I hold the articles we produce to a high enough technical standard that people cannot call them “immature” or “poorly written” and must instead bring something more intellectual to the table when they leave us critical comments.

 

I've come to realize that not only is the act of student reporting (yes, even of news and feature stories) in need of defending, the very act of recording the truth is just as much of a statement as writing an opinion story—and the impact is even greater. I don’t need to be angry in the same way I was as a sophomore to get people to listen. I just need to ask questions and share information.

 

So, yes. As it turns out, editor-in-chief is a little bit closer to the lawyer-zookeeper-writer-actor combo career I had in mind in third grade than I would have thought before this year. But in addition to the disaster-mitigation techniques I’ve picked up this year, journalism has given me a venue to make a positive impact on the world. I’m not sure what I will be doing in five years, and it probably won’t be editing a newspaper. But there will still be a lot of questions to ask, and a lot of problems to solve, and I am sure I will be working with others to do so.

 

So I have one last question for myself when I graduate: Were all the angry students and emails to administration and panicked meetings and crazy comments worth it? I think the answer will be yes.