I can honestly say that I never thought I would be sitting here, writing my first Wyvern’s Tale as editor-in-chief of the KO News. But now that I am writing this, I don’t think I am able to do justice to how excited I am about having this opportunity.
When I took my first journalism class as a freshman, I was unsure if I would even enjoy the class, and it took some convincing from my advisor at the time to even take the elective.
I can confidently say, I am indebted to my freshman year advisor for pushing me to take journalism, and I know that getting me to do something I didn’t want to do, couldn’t have been easy. Nonetheless, her convincing me to take this elective has allowed me to be where I am today.
We were barely a month into the second-semester journalism elective before the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly ended my first year of high school.
Despite the change of environment for my journalism class, I was able to experience different types of journalistic writing and eventually home in on the areas I enjoyed most.
And, since then, the events my class has lived through have been anything but normal. But, my journalism experience has thrived off the lack of normalcy; the majority of my first pieces were based on the increasingly chaotic world I was witnessing firsthand.
In fact, my first article that was published when I was a journalism student was an account of the restrictions in various countries at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns.
After having my first published article be a news piece, we moved on to opinion writing, and not surprisingly this style of writing quickly became a favorite of mine.
Writing an article that wasn’t based on my opinion was a rarity for me, and I fed off of the political turmoil in the United States to come up with topics to write about.
I found that I enjoyed giving my opinion or criticizing something, and this led me to become an associate in the opinions section.
During my first year on the KO News writing for the opinions section, my love for journalistic writing grew; it became a way I could write about almost anything I wanted and give my opinion on it at the same time.
Being an associate as a sophomore was an enjoyable experience, which helped me continue my passion for writing. During that year, I was able to write about the eventful 2022 election, some of the crazy politicians, vaccine mandates, President Biden’s first term, and the infamous Capitol insurrection.
After I had worked as an associate, I was given the opportunity to be the head of the opinion section at the end of my sophomore year.
It has become a theme that I enjoy anything and everything where I am allowed to give my opinion. Not only was I able to continue writing my opinions on various topics, but I also had the chance to read other KO students’ opinion pieces, which became an enjoyable activity for me.
I liked being able to read about topics I was unfamiliar with and learn something new in the process. After a short time as the head of the opinions section, I knew that becoming editor-in-chief was a goal of mine.
I had heard numerous stories about being editor-in-chief from my older brother who served in the role from 2019-2020. It sounded like a job I would truly enjoy and one I felt would be fulfilling. After spending time editing opinion pieces, it quickly became something that didn’t feel like a chore, but rather something I liked.
I am incredibly grateful and excited to be in this role, and I can’t wait for what’s to come in the next year.
I hope that during my time as editor-in-chief other people will learn to love journalistic writing in the same way I do. My goal is for the KO News to foster an environment where people can voice their opinions and continue writing about topics they are passionate about.
In addition, I also hope that the KO News will become an outlet for members of the KO community to share memorable events or exciting news.
I can almost guarantee that as I continue writing the Wyvern’s Tale, I will offer my opinions on political issues or other controversial topics, because, after all, that’s my favorite part of the KO News.
Before I end this, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a special shoutout to my older brother, Jaden (previously mentioned). I was reluctant to publicly acknowledge his impact, but I am glad I chose to
His encouragement and support has helped get to this point; and without a lot of harsh editing-related comments from him, I definitely would not be here writing this.
