There is so much or so little I can write about the newspaper. Similar to my current editor position, I can put in as much effort as I want into this, but just like my work ethic I’m writing this rushedly, but I promise what I have to say about the Liberator is meaningful.

It was my sophomore year of high school. I had a teacher who may or may not have been obsessed with Marvel-related content, but he was interesting. Because of a class I took with him the summer before freshman year I wanted to take the newspaper class. Now in case you don’t remember, there was a certain pandemic that made it hard to go outside, which made it harder to do interviews for the class, but I got through by conducting zoom and phone interviews. Something about working with people to publish a paper every six weeks was something that I saw as very rewarding. It’s what kept me going and it is why I applied to be an editor.

Working as the photo editor helped me rediscover my passion for photography. In middle school I was in a photo club for one year. We competed against other schools and I brought first place awards and best of show awards. Working with the photo essay gave me the creative freedom I wanted because I got to design a page that wasn’t like the others. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fully express what I wanted and ended up just having the same format for about two issues.

Some of my worst experiences with the Liberator included doing inventory and writing pitches. When it comes to providing ideas on what to write about, every single event I know about leaves my mind. I can write an article and ask staffers to write stuff but I cannot pitch in ideas. Inventory? Don’t get me started on inventory. I despised that job so much. Like why was it given to the photo department? I will not rest until every other department has tried doing that job. It takes a painfully long time looking for a single camera piece and I am sick and tired of…

My favorite part of working with the Liberator is getting to work with so many amazing and talented people and getting to learn from them. I enjoyed every time I went out to cover events such as SXSW with Katie, LiLi and Annabel, and I appreciate every time that I learn something new about photography from Kayla.

I feel that I have played a major role in the rise of the paper’s popularity. As the Web Editor-in-Chief, I have kept our social media posting somewhat regularly. I have come up with creative ways to increase our online presence such as food reviews and highlighting people of LASA — things that would have not happened if I didn’t push for them to be published. The Liberator has had such a big impact on me and it is a stepping stone for greater things to come, like winning a Pulitzer award or being added to the CIA watchlist (I think those are big achievements for journalists right?).