H: The countdown has begun—only three more weeks of this futile power struggle for Observer leadership with Jeremy (“futile” as in I have repeatedly been named the unquestioned leader of our paper). There are countless people that we want to thank for helping us keep the Observer running and keeping Jeremy from aggravating me to the point of committing unspeakable crimes, but we wanted to take the time to spotlight a few special ones. If it were up to me, I would be writing this last article on my own, but alas, democracy must prevail, and so Jeremy and I are writing this together. Thus, with depressing reluctance, I now yield the floor to my co-Editor-in-Chief, the great women’s activist Mr. Jeremy Chung.
J: HEHEHEHE OMG THANKS SO MUCH BESTIE. If you can’t tell, that was me imitating Ha-Yeon. After knowing her for three years too long, the greatest thing I learned was how to perfectly imitate her. Anyways, enough of Ha-Yeon and now onto the first person we would like to thank: Ms. Zitnik. As the sole advisor for the Observer, this paragraph is not enough space to thank you for the amount of time and effort you commit to the Observer. Thank you for resuming the NYC trip after so many years, giving feedback whenever possible and staying with us for those l-o-n-g-g production nights. I cannot wait to visit next year on my breaks to catch up.
H: Next, Dr. Beggs. You may be surprised by this shoutout, but from the very first day of AP Lit, you have single-handedly prevented the public education system from making us believe that literature was stuffy, repetitive and a whole plethora of other adjectives synonymous to “boring.” With the exception of the irredeemable “Waiting for Godot,” thank you so much for resparking our love for English!
J: To our fellow Class of 2024 staff members, we did it! What started out as just five sophomores huddled on one side of Room 243 quickly turned into 13 of us, some of whom I’ve never talked to before and others I’ve known since middle school and even Kindergarten. Whether you were an Honorary EIC (cough Caroline), a Section Editor or our beloved Social Media Manager, good luck to all of us on our future endeavors, and maybe one day our paths will cross again.
H: With Jeremy and I’s “minor control freak” personality traits making us a combined major control freak, we have worried about how we could leave the paper even better than we had found it. Looking at our staff for next year, however, what I feel is not worry but instead pride. Everyone from our seasoned J2 and J3 staff to the J1s finally moving up to join our community has been an inspiration to me this past year, pushing me to become a better writer, editor and leader—I know that the Observer is in fantastic hands.
J: It’s extremely important to give a shout-out to all the Observer subscribers and readers, most of whom are WCHS families and staff. It is truly all of your support that keeps the Observer afloat, and all of us at the Observer make sure to return the favor with every article. I am always glad to see our newspaper stands in the hallways out of papers! In a special shoutout to Principal Taylor, thank you for always generously making time for interviews. Everyone agrees that your utmost transparency has helped make our school community a much warmer space.
H: Now, all jokes aside, I would like to thank you, Jeremy, for being more competent than I ever could have hoped for. Ever since we silently glared at each other in Zoom breakout rooms over freshman year, with me judging the terribly basic world map on your wall, I am sure I knew (very) deep down that I had met one of my best friends. Thank you for the dry advice that is exactly what I need to hear to get out of my weekly identity crises and for being one of those despicable coworkers who takes everything one step further. Truly, I could not have chosen a better co-conspirator to listen to heavy metal with.
J: Ha-Yeon, you leave me now in a very difficult position. I know you have bugging me a lot to finish the paragraph. It is not because I have absolutely nothing good to say about you, but because out of all the things I am thankful for about you, I’m not sure what should be mentioned with such little space without it sounding like goodbye. The first time you ever texted me was not even about this class but for help in Mr. Leber’s BC Calculus. At first, I thought you were just another tryhard like me taking BC calc as a sophomore, but I have learned that you are an incredibly smart and talented friend and someone I know I can rely on. I know it might not always look like it on the surface, but I really value our bestie-ship. The next time we meet up, maybe you’ll be the one driving me around after you get over the fear of pedestrians, all while listening to heavy metal and yapping about our new college life.
