Going into senior year, I was ready to take it easy and choose some classes I actually enjoyed after undertaking the exhausting AP course load characteristic of junior year. As a chronic doodler, I kept my eye out for some more creatively unrestricted classes, and after rifling through a copy of The Liberator and appreciating the graphics one afternoon, I began to form an idea. Sanwi, a close friend, was completely encouraging of my joining The Liberator team, and I probably owe it to her that I had the motivation to approach Mr. Garcia after school where I was met with his signature Dwayne-Johnson-esque eyebrow raise, which I would become well acquainted with in the following year. Throughout high school, I’ve done a lot of exploring by throwing myself into new activities ranging from band to track, but nothing has unexpectedly clicked into place quite like newspaper has. At the beginning of the year, I thought of newspaper as a class that I could just chill and draw in, but I really had no clue how many irreplaceable memories, fits of laughter, and lasting friends I would find within The Liberator clan.
Right from the start of the school year, where I got to draw Barbenheimer portraits, I knew I was in for a good time. Amelia, my beloved fellow graphics editor, where do I start? I’ve loved every second of being a power graphics duo, frantically searching for our Apple pencils (mostly mine to be honest), listening to you rant about drama and isopods, making beautiful illustrations (cough..hot prisoner.. cough), and praising the god of the Procreate Dry Ink brush with you (even though I do remember my art being likened to a children’s crayon drawing at one point). I’ll miss drawing with Mr. Garcia’s random mixes of music playing in the background, ranging from Bollywood to rock music. And Malvika, I loved attempting (and failing) to solve the NYT Connections with you and stealing your tasty pretzels every class.
When I learned The Liberator editor crew would be receiving passes to SXSW, I got hyped to see unreleased films and meet celebrities, but my favorite memories were the in-between moments, like being wheedled into eating disgusting-looking mealworms with Sanwi at the Creative Industry Expo and finding that they were pleasantly crunchy, and fangirling about Tokyo Syoki Syodo while eating the most delicious street plantains in the middle of the night with Annabel, and being in awe of Neptune’s Core with Katie and Megan. Being in The Liberator has brought me so much closer to some incredible people, including my long-lost twin Lili, and it turns out I got a lot more out of this class than just drawing and chilling. I’ll miss squeezing onto the tiny couch at the back of the classroom with 4 other people and entering maximum productivity, and I’ll miss the frantic and delirious late nights putting the newspaper together. Even though this year was too short of a time to be part of this newspaper than I would’ve liked, I’m beyond glad I decided to be a latecomer and participate in The Liberator experience and I will miss everyone so much.
