Letter from the editors

Our final words for the historical class of 2020

Letter+from+the+editors

Sydney Byerly & Kelly Titus, Co-Editors-in-Chief

Bye for now B305

I wasn’t really sure how I was going to start this because this definitely was not the ending I wanted or expected for senior year. I thought we were going to have two more months of amazing times and writing print and digitally not being able to experience that was disappointing. However, what we really got and the writing we produced is still something I’m extremely proud of. We persevered to the best of our ability and gave NA and the community the best quality work we could put out under the circumstances. Anyways here’s how I want to start my goodbye- wait scratch that it’s a bye for now because I’m definitely coming back to NA to see all my bulldogs. 

My favorite issue this year was definitely either August or November! I was so excited for the August issue because it was our first issue as editors and it came out amazing. I got to interview the Mayor of Dayton Ohio with one of my best friends for a super serious story on how people as schools can prepare and prevent mass shootings. I loved getting to attend the Red for Ed Action Day in November so that I could report on it, stand up for my sweet, hardworking teachers and speak with people from all over the state. One of my favorite things to talk about and put together was the cover of each issue. Deciding whether it was going to be just a single cover photo or a collage, putting it all on the page and then printing it out hundreds of times until it was perfect. The November cover is my favorite one to date. However, one thing I won’t miss is the print day stress and tears when everything wasn’t going to plan (by the way things never went exactly to plan). Having to find people in the hallways and stealing them for an interview or taking a picture minutes before we were supposed to send them to print was not fun in the least bit. But those experiences made the staff grow from each issue to the next.

The past three years on staff have shown me so much about who I am, who I want to be and the people I want to surround myself with. The people on the Blotter staff each year are some of the best, kindest, passionate and hardworking people and young adults I’ve ever known. To Mrs. Faulkner, thank you for being my school mom and for all the lessons about journalism, life and everything in between. I’m going to miss your dancing and funny words like “the googla” and all the times you made fun of me for not being able to type or scan a picture right. To Kelly, thank you for being by my side and listening to all my worries and rants every month. I appreciate you and your help through it all. To all of the seniors that have been on staff with me for years, I love you crazy goofballs and I’m going to miss y’all so much so don’t be a stranger. To the seniors who joined just this year, thank you for exploring journalism with us and for all your effort- you guys are amazing and so talented. I still can’t believe how much you learned so quickly. To all the juniors, thank you for everything you brought to staff and my life, you guys are so funny and such good writers. To the sophomores thank you for bringing fresh ideas and happiness to class everyday- I’m going to miss your smiling faces and energy.

This year I learned how to be a better leader. My biggest takeaway is that it doesn’t always need to be so serious- yes news is serious but the whole process should be fun and worth the work. You need to give twice as much positivity as you give criticism. Criticism is a good thing though- because there is always room for improvement. It’s important to remember that about yourself too. You’re not perfect in the least either. Take criticism back from your peers. That alone helps build a relationship. Besides the countless hours you spend together going to events, interviewing, taking pictures, and writing, with one another. The people on staff have become my family. All the blood, sweat and tears that goes into every issue has always been and will always be worth it. I’m so happy to say that I will be able to take this information with me to the next level while I continue my writing career at Franklin college where I will be double majoring in multimedia journalism and sports communication.

Congratulations to all of my peers and classmates! I’m so proud to be in such an amazing group of individuals. Good job to everyone who’s pursuing higher education! Thank you to everyone going into the military and armed forces- we appreciate your service in advance! Thank you to anyone tackling careers right out of high school, your skills are not going unnoticed or under-appreciated. I hope to see lots of familiar faces at our class reunions because we didn’t get the end of our senior year that we all hoped for so let’s make the best of it with more memories in the future.

~Syd

Here’s to the future

I don’t even know how to begin this. Whether to address my fellow 2020 classmates and under formally or how I would’ve in person when saying my goodbyes, which is “Yo Ima miss you”.

Kidding, of course I probably would’ve been in tears, ruining the mascara I would’ve spent a good 10 minutes perfecting, with my hair that I in actuality probably spent zero time on getting frizzier with every sweaty, drawn-out goodbye hug.

High school was in all honesty what I expected it to be: full of new and blossoming friendships, ones that withered away, heartbreak and first love, peer pressure fueled by an adrenaline rush, sneaking out, late nights with friends and that person you don’t want anyone to know you spent your late nights with, petty drama you were brought into for no reason and petty drama you know you started but live in denial for a good 3 months after the fact, finding new and exciting passions that either stuck like glue or faded as quick as they came, first experiences, and full of mistakes. But I wouldn’t have changed a damn thing that happened.

I started high school with a love and passion for makeup. I was always creatively-minded and that was a source that not only gave me what felt like an outlet to express myself, but also confidence. However, I slowly grew out of it as I grew into my natural confidence I slowly gained when I realized I didn’t need the makeup to be pretty.

My next passion was journalism. I signed up for the class in eighth grade just knowing I liked to write, and after freshman year I realized how much I loved it and I knew I was at least somewhat good at it, and had a natural talent for it. I continued, being a reporter on the Blotter staff my sophomore year, feature editor junior, then finally co-editor-in-chief alongside my dear friend since sixth grade, Sydney Byerly, and boy did I sure have a lot of fun these last few years. Newspaper not only taught me what it means to reap the rewards of the hard work one can dedicate themselves to, but also how to work with a team efficiently, how to work with design/computer software, how to look at a demographic and base your product around their likes and wants, and more. It taught me a lot about the real world, quite literally due to the fact that 50% of it was me and my staff reporting the real world around us, but also in just the little ways it worked. I have a never ending appreciation for everything journalism gave me.

Although, I sit here and cherish and write about my precious memories of high school, all the things I loved, hated, all the things I missed out on, and everything in between, I would rather look forward to the future. We can all remember the past with a happy heart at the reunion, or more likely when we see each other at the market and give each other a head nod, and we already know the vibe.

Congratulations to all my fellow seniors who received scholarships on Class Night and any other day of the year, I’m so proud of all of you hard-working, intelligent, and amazing people, and I can’t wait to see what you guys accomplish. And to everyone in my class, I guess this is goodbye. Although I’ll probably still see most of you on Twitter, we all know it just isn’t the way it was anymore. Change is inevitable, and we faced a bigger one than the majority of senior classes have faced. We as a collective class, not just NAHS, but literally (hence global pandemic) around the world, had a unique and ultimately life-changing experience. Whether you feel like your actual life didn’t change much or it did, I think we can all agree mentally and emotionally, we’re not the same for so many reasons outside of the fact that we’re graduating high school. I think this period of time we were shot into brought a transformation to not only our population and planet, but also to the individuals themselves. I hope we can all continue to take change in stride, as it’s part of life, and I’m proud to say this is my class. We did that, and we’ll keep doing it. Each of us is going to join the workforce, go to college, enlist in the military, all of the above or maybe none, and I wish everyone luck.

Thank you for my childhood, we all in some way shaped each other. And I think that’s pretty amazing, and also a little weird.

~Kelly