Kelley: And There Ya Have It, Folks

Lillian Kelley, Reporter|May 30, 2019

I originally signed up for yearbook at the beginning of my junior year and I’m not going to lie to you trusty readers, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be put on journalism staff to accommodate APUSH into my schedule. I didn’t really know what the journalism kids did other than the Friday Flash so I had no idea what to expect. However, taking journalism was the best thing that happened to me this year.
I found out that being on journalism staff entails a lot more than just being silly on the Friday Flash. Student journalists learn to take and edit quality photos, record videos, approach and interview people, write journalistic pieces, give and take constructive criticism, and collaborate on a team. Of course, we sometimes are silly on the Friday Flash, but a lot more work than I ever knew goes into it to include as many people as possible, make the news relevant, and capture our audience’s attention.
I learned a lot of valuable lessons through taking this class with Mrs. Basinger, Kristen Baier, and Steven Dobryznski as mentors to me all year. Mrs. Basinger pushed me to improve as a journalist and a person by always encouraging and offering to lend a helping hand. Kristen always encouraged us to go out and get the story and was my go-to person when I had troubles since she always had a logical solution or answer. Steven has been a good friend of mine for a long time and always made me smile with his dry sense of humor and sarcasm and never stopped believing in me, even when my ideas were a little out there.
The most important thing I learned was working with people, and these are skills I will use for literally the rest of my life. Everyone should know how to properly handshake (which I do now, thanks to Mrs. Basinger shaking our hands every time we walked in the door and telling us how to improve on ours), converse with new people, write, consume news, and effectively get the facts before they graduate because these are skills you can apply to any aspect of life.
I planned on writing a favorite memory here, but truthfully, I can’t think of just one and if I wrote all of them, I’d probably never stop writing because being on staff has given me a new reason to smile and laugh every day, taught me a lot, and made me a better student and person.
Although journalism won’t be the same next year without our beloved graduates and of course, Lida and Alisher brightening the newsroom, but I can’t wait to see what next year holds for me and my fellow student journalists as we push ourselves and each other.
And there ya have it, folks.