The first time I encountered The Liberator was before I attended LASA as an eighth grader at Kealing. I had gone to an elective fair LASA was holding for incoming freshmen and promised my mom I would give every table a chance. So, I started out with the first one closest to the door. Mr. Garcia gave us his spiel and then encouraged us to take from the array of newspapers spread across the table. I blindly grabbed one and moved onto the next table. 

Later, in the car, I leafed through the paper I had picked up and was immediately perplexed by it. The stories were so strange. Did a food review that critiqued restaurants purely based on whether they had dino nuggets on the menu really deserve a full page spread? Was it really in good journalistic integrity to have a gossip column quoting teachers gossiping about other teachers? Why was the editorial policy just the “Bee Movie” script? Oh wait. 

Although I should have been able to tell much, much earlier from the bold text reading “April Fools Edition…Fake News” bordering every page, this was actually the joke issue, The Litigator. Either way, for some reason or another, I loved it. If I could be a part of any group that could come up with something that funny and creative, I was sure I would enjoy it. And I have. Otherwise why would I have stayed for four years? Definitely not a legally binding contract I signed with my own blood during the yearly Liberator staff initiation. Nope.