I have always been a nostalgic person. I am one to ruminate on pivotal moments throughout my life and file through all of the possible “what if?”s that accompany different decisions I have made. One thing I have never second-guessed, however, was my choice to join Tower staff all the way back in freshman year. What started as just another class quickly morphed into the best part of my day, and throughout all four years of high school where nothing was guaranteed and everything was changing, Tower was always constant for me. A constant passion that I worked toward with people I have been lucky enough to call my best friends.

For those who don’t understand why Tower staff members keep coming back, or see little reason for the heaps of effort that most of us put into our stories, I will try and put this into perspective using some of my favorite moments from my time on staff:

I was fortunate enough to lead a publication with one of my best friends, which included making preplans over FaceTime which took us twice as long than needed because we would wind up getting sidetracked and talking about anything under the Sun.
That one time during sophomore year when Dailey’s arm was broken so she couldn’t tie her hair up in a way that looked presentable so I tried to help, but effectively got yelled at and told “this isn’t a sleepover.”
Combined Taylor Swift reviews from Maddie, Dailey and I that date back to sophomore year, all exposing our skills in listening to copious amounts of music (especially Taylor Swift).
Distribution days where we would roam the hallways and wind up at room S170 for the sole purpose of visiting our respective younger siblings. Upon reflection, this was probably very obnoxious to the teacher, so my sincerest apologies to Mr. Booth.
Developing my InDesign skills for the first two years on staff and learning about design through stories and pictures that were equally as fun to read as they were to be creative with and put on paper.
Interviewing really cool people that I never would have been able to talk to otherwise, and whom I learned fascinating things from, such as: Ken Daniels, the Red Wings broadcaster; Evan Birnholz, the Washington Post Sunday Crossword Editor and Liz Cooper, a true crime influencer with 6 million followers.
Hiding in the back corner and searching for prom dresses, eventually convincing Edge to show us hers from her senior year and help us on our online hunt (I did end up getting a pink dress in the shade she recommended, for the record).
Paul and I pretending to write a story on a Lacrosse game and driving 30 minutes away to Dakota High School where we took photos and did interviews, all to get Paul’s senior assassin victim.
Dailey, Mira and I recording an ongoing TikTok where we show our outfits, and telling ourselves every single time that we’ll do it more consistently (we never do).
Looking at my ink-stained hands every two weeks after flipping through the pages of the paper that I and so many others poured blood, sweat and tears into, knowing there was always another issue right around the corner that we would be just as happy with, if not more so. Well, that is until now.

So, for the last time,
Right over left,

Cecile Walsh