If you were to tell me a year ago that I would spend my free time throughout the next school year hunched over an iPad frantically typing out news, I would have laughed in your face. 

But, here we are.

I started my journey in the realm of student journalism at the beginning of my junior year, a few weeks later than everyone else had started school. Walking into The Sidekick newsroom on my first day, the room was filled with experienced upperclassmen and new staffers working hard on separate stories. Jargon was thrown out left and right, leaving me scrambling to catch up.

The first couple of weeks were a little rough. I felt as though I was far less experienced than the rest of the staff, causing me to not communicate or do much for the paper. It was weird how all of these people were so dedicated to this program and how close they were to each other.

Most people on The Sidekick joined the team at the beginning of  their sophomore year. I was different; I missed the opportunity to go through the customary summer boot camp, so I didn’t understand some of the simple concepts everyone had in their minds.

Slowly, however, I began to see the magic in D115. I made friends in the class, people who I never thought I’d interact with before. I began to ask questions instead of sitting confused. I offered to cover events and take on stories even if I didn’t know every detail on how to do it. 

As I realized that I wanted to do more to be a part of The Sidekick, the program welcomed me with open arms. 

I started to look forward to the days I had the class to work on projects that I had; projects that turned into pieces I was motivated to do my best work on. There was a community that I could help become stronger.

The pandemic in my freshman year had effects on all aspects of my life. One of which  I didn’t notice until I was back in school was that I had lost the drive to work that I used to possess.

My classes were boring and there were no extracurricular activities in my schedule yet; I had nothing exciting to put my best effort into. The past few years have been a hiatus from everything I enjoyed. There was no energy left for me to do anything but survive each day because I wasn’t being challenged in any way.

The Sidekick offered something I unknowingly needed: it gave me something to work towards. I was getting more energy as I took on projects and it felt amazing. I didn’t even realize that there was a change in myself; the growth was a slight increase everyday. 

There was a moment in which I realized that I was a part of The Sidekick. Not just as a class, but as a community. I was talking with my friend in the middle of the class period about an argument on whether the Oxford comma was valid or not in AP Style (it’s not, if you were curious of my stance). We were laughing so hard our stomachs hurt, barely getting out our arguments. 

And that’s when I knew I found a home.

Scholastic journalism in that it helps educate the community and helps future leaders develop their skills. There are so many ways in which The Sidekick has made me a smarter person.

But that’s not how I’ll remember my time here.

I look at The Sidekick and see so many little memories: snippets of my friends grinning at me, interviews that have caused me to think about subjects I have never considered before, inside jokes stemming from journalism vocabulary, free time from other classes that spent creating stories and the thrill of posting a story to the website.

Writing has always been something that I’ve done as a hobby now and then. I like expressing myself and finding the balance between relatability and personalization in a piece. Before getting into journalism, my specific form of writing was hidden in the folded pages of my notebook.

The Sidekick has given me a platform to create content with the ability to reach people. It doesn’t matter whether or not people fully relate to what I write or not, the lessons I try to teach from my personal experiences can be absorbed by everyone.

I’ve been able to publish my writing and have hundreds of people view my stories. The lessons I have learned this year have also helped many others whenever they read what I have written. The sense of accomplishment I get from being able to give back to a program that has done so much for me is one I wouldn’t change for the world.

Student journalism has given me things I never knew I needed. Having a community to come back to means so much in these formative years. I’ve grown as a writer and as a person, subconsciously making myself better through my experiences. 

Give a little more thought into what you read on our website or in our newspaper. All of these stories are made by people like me: students who love the program we are in. 

Follow Maya (@mvpalovalley) and @CHSCampusNews on Twitter.