I’m a sentimental texter with dozens of unfinished Google Docs and almost as many quarter-filled journals in the random drawers of my room. I love a letter or a kind email for the things I mean too deeply to be able to say. My notes app holds my final words to my grandfather before he died because as I hugged him goodbye, the only thing I could muster up was that I loved him. 20 minutes later I sent my dad a screenshot of my proper goodbye to show my grandfather, something I typed up through tears to thank him for our memories. 

When I’m speaking, I try to manipulate every sentence with the perfect tone, the best word choice, and the exact mood I want to communicate. But that’s not possible. I have become someone who avoids confrontation but will share any opinion or sentiment if I can write it out, delete it and retype, maybe pull up an online thesaurus.

I’ve always liked writing. It comes easy to me. But it wasn’t until I began doing it so often that I found refuge in it. To be incredibly cliche and dramatic, writing for the school newspaper is probably the best decision I’ve ever made. My non-confrontational, conflict-avoiding personality mixed with all the opportunities and freedoms in journalism have created the perfect storm of personal discovery. 

Thank you to the DGN Omega staff and all the teachers that support student journalism. I love writing, even when it’s writing a bittersweet thank you card to a teacher or a yearbook signing for a friend I know I may not see after high school. Here is where I first realized that, so thank you.