“I started writing for my school’s newspaper. You won’t believe what happened next!!” is the clickbait headline I would have written, but it was a little too long.
Like many others, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I joined The Panther Press. I definitely imagined way more of those clickbait headlines. When I think back to freshman year, I remember eating lunch in the closet in 223, and hoping that I could be half as cool as 2022-2023 editors-in-chief Julia Gray and Matthew Chen one day.
I never thought I’d still be here four years later, but I’m so glad I am. Although I have thousands of words in me on how journalism changed my life, it really condenses down to this: The Panther Press taught me that my voice matters — that everyone’s voice matters. And the very worst thing we can do is say nothing.
A lot of our editorials have some element of “in a(n) age/world/era where things suck, we need to do something about it.”
We walk around with the weight of the world’s problems; this generation is supposed to fix it all. It is a tall task. But being a part of this school newspaper has shown me the ways that students are fighting those problems already. Simply by exercising their creativity and compassion, they are creating stories of hope.
Although journalism is all about fact, at its core, it seeks to humanize. The person who sits next to you in class, the kid on the other end of the world who has never known your name and likely never will — journalism has the power to bridge these people together.
I wrote about Mrs. Salvage’s wedding dress adventures. Without the chance to write it, I would have never known about that side of her. Same for so many student artists and their passions, whether it be the Black Student Union, girls lacrosse, or a person who I’ve seen every single day without knowing they dream of becoming a scientist.
We don’t exist in isolation at this school, and we don’t exist in isolation in the world. It is storytelling that reminds us that isolation is something we create, and therefore have the power to destroy. Writing for The Panther Press made my high school years become less about getting the best grade and more about falling in love with the world Haven students want to see. And without journalism, with its powerful ethical codes, I could never have imagined that world.
It’s a world where all stories are heard, no matter who they come from. It is a world where we lead with compassion before indifference. It’s one where being an idealist isn’t naive, and being a cynic isn’t the default.
I am grateful to every staff member on The Panther Press who has worked to tell the stories of Haven. I am particularly thankful to Ms. Plows for giving me the tools to see a better world and the space to decide if I wanted to look. Also, this entire year would have been impossible without my incredible awesome co-editor-in-chief Matthew Ramirez.
It takes courage to choose to believe in people, whether it be at their worst or their best — journalism shows it all. I hope that when Haven students see the news as adults, they don’t immediately fear it. I hope that because of one well-told story from The Panther Press, they decide to open that link or pick up that paper, because they believe in a better world, too.
