I have never exactly considered myself a creative person. I grew up playing all kinds of sports and I’ve never channeled my energy towards anything artistic, I was honestly never really interested. My mindset has always been more focused on academics instead of art, and I never truly knew of the benefits of expressing one’s creativity until I joined The Tower, as a page editor.

Throughout high school, I focused on taking classes that I thought would get me into college, not ones I was particularly interested in. Although I enjoyed all of those classes, walking into the Tower room was always a relief. It was never a draining class, one where all we did is sit and take notes. I knew as I entered the room that I would spend the fifty minutes talking to my fellow staffers, coming up with topics to write about, sketching an outline or learning about the power of student journalists. Although we may not have had lesson plans every day, I learned more by being a part of The Tower than my other classes. I learned skills that I will use for the rest of my life; how to better work with others, communication skills, interview skills, and I became more accustomed to using technology. I learned the importance of getting out of my comfort zone and what I can accomplish when I do. All of these will be of great value in my life as I get older.

In eighth grade, I blindly signed up to take honors journalism, not knowing what I was getting myself into. I was excited that my two best friends, Bridget Doyle and Mary Fannon also blindly signed up for Honors-J. I had no past experience writing articles or doing any sort of page designing. When I became a page editor my sophomore year, I was nervous to begin something I had never done before, but I quickly learned and fell in love with it. The first deadline was pretty rough, my page kept crashing and all my work kept deleting. Although I was seconds away from breaking down in tears, I stuck with it and every deadline after that just got better. I became obsessed with the art of page designing; placing the graphics on the page, adjusting the text, and even the tedious work such as coming up with headlines and placing small white boxes to block out the text. Sitting down at a computer, listening to music and creating a page was nearly therapeutic for me. There have been numerous times I would be overwhelmed with my other school work, to calm down while still being productive, I’d work on a page if I had one. Having an editor tell me they liked my page was a huge confidence booster. Zooming out to see the final product is a feeling I’m going to miss. My pages were always something I was proud of.

Not only has Tower been a place where I could express myself through writing and designing, but it’s also been a place where I met many amazing people and learned a lot from my peers. Being a part of The Tower for three years made me realize I am capable of more than I thought I was, it brought out a side of me I didn’t think existed. I will always appreciate having a place to channel my creativity and a community to be a part of.