Newspaper is quite possibly the best class I have taken in high school. Even before I joined the class, I knew that it would be a lot of fun, but I didn’t realize how important it would become in my life. I’m really glad that I’ve been able to find a home in Room 2315. 

I first wanted to take Newspaper when I was in eighth grade and saw it on a list of courses for 10th through 12th graders. I was disappointed that you could only join the class as a sophomore, but I was excited to apply. As a freshman at home during that rough year of online school, I read articles on peakstudentmedia.com to feel more connected to Apex High School and feel like I was actually part of the school community. I read so many senior sign offs and actually started planning out my senior sign off right then, as a freshman who had never even taken the class. I really wish I wrote down my ideas. 

Later on in my freshmen year, I applied for the class and did an interview with Mrs. Doud. I was admitted to the class and was so excited to begin. During the first semester of my sophomore year, I spent basically half the day in Room 2315, for English II with Mrs. Doud during second period and Newspaper I during third period. I even ate lunch there a few times. Though I wasn’t able to take the class during second semester since I had Civics during third period, I was excited to be part of Newspaper as a junior. 

I’ve always had my “spot”, my favorite table at the front of the class that I claimed on the first day of sophomore year. During my junior year, my friend Shreya and I sat together at that table and spent many wonderful third periods together. I looked forward to coming to Newspaper everyday to talk to her and all of my other Newspaper friends. At the beginning of senior year, I really missed all the seniors who had graduated the year prior. I distinctly remember casually talking to Shreya about how cool it would be if we both ended up going to the same college, and in a few months we actually will. It’s a really strange feeling to think of leaving behind your friends and teachers and the community you’ve built in high school to go to college, where you have to build new relationships and make that your new home. 

I’ve written a variety of arts and entertainment articles (and managed to use the word “variety” in basically every article I wrote). During my junior year, I wrote my articles imagining that I was a popular blogger with a dedicated following of people who read my articles, which was probably a little weird. And every week I found a new shade of blue to use as the background of my Canva headers. 

My Hallmark Christmas movies article remains my favorite and probably best article I’ve written. That article along with the fall movie and TV recommendations article made me realize how much I love entertainment journalism. I’m really proud of all of my book, movie and TV show recommendations articles. 

Newspaper has been a big part of my high school experience. Though there were some semesters when I wasn’t in the class, I still felt pretty connected to it since I sat in the Newspaper room during lunch. This last semester of Newspaper has probably been my best semester of Newspaper, not for the quality of the articles I was writing but for the amount of joy that I had coming to class each day. Since I didn’t have a first period class this year, I came to Newspaper every morning upon arriving at school. It always seems that the best days of the school year are the ones at the end, like you only really enjoy school when you are conscious of the fact that it will be over soon.

This fall, I will be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to study media and journalism and creative writing. I’m really excited to be going to college but also pretty nervous. 

I want to thank all of my teachers that I’ve had throughout all four years of high school, including, but not limited to: Mrs. McGee, Ms. FB, Ms. Nordt, Ms. Schmidt, Ms. Drake, Mrs. Lasher, Mr. Frederick, and Ms. Pettifer. Thank you for your guidance, kind words, and sense of humor. 

Finally, I would like to thank you, the person who is reading this article. I think we all know that nobody reads our articles, but at this point I’m okay with that. If you’re reading this article, you’re a real one. 

This is Shivani Handa, signing off.