I’ve been imagining writing this since May of Sophomore year, when I edited my very first Rambler piece, which just so happened to be Lilah Spedding’s Swan Song. I remember thinking about how far away my own senior year seemed, thinking about how cool it was going to be now that I was an editor, and being so excited I had more articles to write before it was time for my Swan Song. My career as a high school journalist is now almost behind me, and I have to sit down and compress the last four years onto this page, hoping to capture my experience in the Rambler, funny enough, in the first article I have ever written by myself.
Never would I have thought that joining Rambler with Emelia as a joke Freshman year so we could write a fake article for the April Fools’ edition would turn into a four-year-long extracurricular commitment. Walking into my first ever meeting giggling and overflowing with all these different ideas of what silly, random things I could write about was something so fun and different, and something that excited me in a way none of the other clubs at our school ever had. After Emelia and I wrote our article about the fake pool on the roof, we came back for the next edition, and the next, and the next, and the next. Before I knew it, the year was over and I really fancied myself a journalist. While April Fools’ is still by far our favorite yearly edition, over the past four years Emelia and I have written an article together every month, and even as we’ve both grown from writers, to editors, and then when I, for some reason, became an editor-in-chief, we’ve always found a way to make writing fun and try to make our readers laugh. Though challenges were faced (we are banned from writing about school affiliated events), I’d say our dynamic duo has acquired a successful journalism portfolio.
I’ve always loved writing, and if you take one look at my math grades you’d understand why. More specifically though, I love grammar, phonetics, and spelling. Like obsessively love it. I love it so much I do SAT English questions for fun, and proofread my dad’s work emails just because I like to. Knowing this about me, you can see why I love being a Rambler editor so much, because it allows me to put this strange, strange niche to actual use. Every missed comma or apostrophe, every run-on sentence or misspelled word, is like a gold mine for me to stumble across and correct, and it never ever gets old. I feel like being a Rambler editor was made for me, and I proudly wear my “grammar police” badge to every meeting. Rambler has been my outlet over these past years, and it feels like the place I truly belong and the place I can really shine.
“Rambler’s not just a club, it’s the school newspaper” but it’s more than just the newspaper. It’s a safe space for creativity, learning, laughing, and growth, which are things I’ve done so much throughout my time in Rambler. I am so grateful for the experience I got to have. and so jealous of those who still have time. Thank you Mr. Vautrain, thank you Caroline and Morgan, thank you Emelia. Thank you Rambler.