As a senior, I can’t help but get sentimental, especially when reflecting on my time in journalism. Newspaper has been one of my favorite activities in high school and has brought me relationships I wouldn’t trade for the world. Following this blurb is a series of conversations the current Tiger Cub seniors had reflecting on our time on staff. We laughed, we joked, and of course, we interrupted. I’m unbelievably grateful for all these people and can’t wait to see what their futures hold.
Emma Mays: My favorite is probably just sophomore year. I ate lunch in the J Room every day with the other journalism kids. That was probably my favorite memory.
Tasia Theoharis: My favorite was probably when we had the election night party and I think just the fact that we pulled it off was my favorite memory.
Mays: It was a miracle
Theoharis: Honestly, it was a miracle, but it was really cool that we pulled it off and I think that was something that I hope other people do because it felt like everyone could voice their opinion, even if it wasn’t necessarily what each of us as individuals believes. It was pretty cool.
Mays: I change my mind. My favorite memory was when Olivia Nicolarsen taped Will Parker’s keys to the ceiling and he couldn’t find them for like an hour.
Mara Franssen: My favorite memories are being able to go to sporting events and take pictures and just be right up with the action and getting to see things first-hand and being the first person to post about it. When I went to state wrestling I did a breaking news article. To me, it was really exciting and it made me want to go into a field like that as a career because that was one of my favorite things: getting a press pass and being on the soccer field or on the basketball courts.
Theoharis: My favorite thing that’s come from journalism is when you post a story and it gets a lot of attention and you feel so important. Last year, when I did my where are they now story, besides having a really awesome time interviewing all these cool people, when it came out, people were commenting and I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is so cool.”
Franssen: I also like the impact you see your story has on the community or the people you’re writing about. When I wrote about Leah Smith and seeing her family and other people share it and commenting like “way to go Leah” and “we are all so proud of you!” It all brings people together, writing does.
Tatiem Bender: I liked when I wrote the story about the dances being canceled, how many people gave that attention. It made me realize how important that stuff is.
Mays: About that story, I would hear people talking about it that didn’t know I was in newspaper or didn’t know Tatiem was in newspaper. She had read the story or seen the story somewhere, and she’s from Doniphan, but she had seen it. Tatiem was like “Oh I wrote that story” and it was kind of cool because you see that people are talking about your story even though they don’t know you wrote it.
Riley Nelson: Sophomore year, we were recording our intros to the broadcast and it was fun to see everyone’s unique ideas for their intros. Also, it was fun to see Emma Redinger sneak her dog into the school. Also, I liked last year, when Pete Ricketts came and I got to photograph him and write a story about it.
Joe Keele: Kind of in general, when I joined newspaper, I was thinking about dropping just because I didn’t know people that well, but I was welcomed easily and it was kind of easy to talk to people. My favorite singular memory was the Kooking with Keele video. We uploaded it and then like five minutes later my brother texted me and then I went to wrestling practice after school and my coaches were like “Kooking with Keele!” and they were watching it during practice.
Mays: The aftermath, man. So much flour. I didn’t even see the actual bonbons.
Mati Ricci: My favorite memory was when we did the secret Santa party for Christmas. That food was good.
Mays: Another one was when we sat in that circle and were mean to each other because we had so many issues that we had to sit in a circle and roast people.
Franssen: That got really harsh.
Theoharis: It was really harsh.
Bender: I refused to sit next to some people.
Nelson: Emma [Redinger] roasted me.
Mays: Emma Redinger and Will [Parker] got bad, but other than that, I thought it was funny.
Federico Bonadonna: My favorite memory was the first day because this was my very first class. Honestly, I was scared. I don’t know, but this class pushed me to be more open to people in general. Also, the fact that I’ve never done something like this before.
Mays: Another one of my favorite things is I forced people to join newspaper and I just think it’s lots of fun to expand your family. Almost all of my best friends are in newspaper. Like 95 percent of my snap streaks: newspaper.
Theoharis: I really like being in newspaper because I think most of the time, we are on the same page. So if we complain, we are usually complaining about the same thing and we are complaining together. It’s kind of fun.
Mays: Complaining together.
Theoharis: That should be our motto.
Mays: The 2018-2019 newspaper motto.
Theoharis: I’m not going into journalism, but I’m glad I was in here.
Mays: Even if you’re not going into journalism, newspaper helps you a lot with your writing skills. I’m a lot better writer than I used to be.
Theoharis: And beyond that, we all probably made friendships that we wouldn’t have if we weren’t in newspaper.
Bender: I like when people send gifs in the group message.
Mays: Seriously, I just lay in my bed at night and am honestly laughing out loud. What was the one time with the grandma? What was the context surrounding that? The group message needs to be archived.
Theoharis: My favorite memory was when Chase couldn’t figure out how to flip the picture.
Mays: That was the grandma one! It said, “Chase right now.”
Franssen: And it was right there the entire time.
Mays: I’ll find it.
Theoharis: If someone finds it I’ll post it with the story.
