As March break approaches, we can feel graduation looming. Our days at KO are coming to an end, and, as an editorial staff, we feel it’s important to send a message to the incoming seniors, the class of 2027.
We sat down for our final editorial meeting and realized something was a bit off. When thinking about the paper’s future, we realized that we have only one junior on the KO news staff. Our editorial staff is made up of only seniors and next year we will lack experience due to the missing presence of juniors on the KO news staff.
With this realization we began talking about other organizations at KO and how we feel there is a missing presence of juniors in a lot of them. We know the junior class is smaller but we feel they’re yet to embrace their role as upperclassmen and really get involved in KO’s abundance of amazing clubs and teams. In our final editorial we feel it’s best to send a message out to the incoming seniors about the importance of getting involved here at KO.
KO is a tight knit community with only about 500 students including the middle school. This means that getting involved is all the more important at a school like ours because every single individual can make a different impact in the various sectors at KO. And despite the small size of KO there are so many things to get involved with in our community.
Starting with our afternoon extracurriculars, whether it be sports or the arts, the biggest recommendation we can give to you juniors is to try new things and embrace the challenges. There are so many seniors currently playing new sports in their last year at KO and even seniors who gave the musical a shot. These are great ways to make a splash in the community and also enhance KO’s success in the arts and sports. You never know the impact you can have on a team if you never give it a try and we know the junior class is filled with talent, we just want you all to show it off more.
Next, we want to encourage the juniors to get into more of the clubs KO has to offer. Using the KO news as a first hand example, we lack presence from their class and it will be felt on the staff next year. Although it may be a bit late to get involved with the KO news it is not too late to get involved with other clubs whether it be the investment club or the green team. Additionally, you are always free to create your own clubs. If you really enjoy something, and wanna share it with the community, allowing others to experience it, you can make a difference. Your impact as seniors will be felt in these areas and if you get involved now it will leave these clubs in a better position come next year.
Additionally, KO offers so many experiences for you all to create more connections and lifelong memories. Whether it’s attending Tobati or the Europe trip, these are all opportunities to get closer with your peers and, in the instance of Tobati, make a positive impact in the world. Go on the sports trip, and spend time with your teammates. Some of the highlights of our years at KO have been on yearly trips. Spending a week with people brings you close, and spending nights together makes memories. You may find yourself wandering the streets of Italy, or kiki-ing in a DC hotel room, or sleeping in a hundred-degree room in the middle of South America. You know what KO is like; you’ve been here for a few years, but now your time is waning, so make the most of it and continue to learn and grow until it’s over.
Be a leader; you will soon be one of the oldest students on campus. So many of your younger friends and classmates will look up to you for answers, to help them with chemistry homework, or for you to proofread their essays. You are the future of KO. You will be leading the sports teams and the clubs, and everything in between. Be confident and have fun with your newfound power.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to explore! Whether it’s trying out a fun elective, sitting at a new table at lunch, or talking with some of your lesser-known acquaintances, it will create fond memories to look back on. Soon, your time at KO will be over, you will take your final midterm, finish your applications to college, and, most heartbreaking of all, finish your last KO news article.
As we pass on the torch to you all, we are sad that our time is over, but excited to visit next year, and to see how you guys run the school, and how you continue to bring pride to KO.
