One last ECHO Monday . . . on a Friday.

Being a part of the ECHO staff this school year has been one of the best experiences I’ve had in high school—seriously.

Now that may come off as a bit dramatic, but I’ve never had a class that’s made me laugh this much. Well, maybe honors chemistry with Mrs. Obrist, but that’s a whole different story.

I actually joined Journalism I when I was in tenth grade, although I had to drop it for other important reasons. Hope there’s no hard feelings, Mr. Kissick.

When scheduling began for my senior year, I really didn’t know what to take for my electives since many of them didn’t appeal to me. One of the only classes that seemed interesting was journalism.

I had already taken AP Language and Composition, so I knew what to expect from Mr. Kissick’s teaching style. So, with a desire to make some of that famous ECHO magic I signed up for Journalism I (an intro course) again—but Mr. Kissick just put me in Journalism II (the ECHO course) anyway.

ECHO releases were always fun to glance at in the past, yet I never really understood that creating stories actually takes more time and effort than I thought. I always looked forward to the opinion pieces primarily.

The start of the 2023 school year and the start of Journalism II saw me covering the massive building renovations which had taken place over the summer. That was quite a big jump for my journalism career, and although I was initially intimated by covering the story, I learned to appreciate the craft of newspaper writing.

There are numerous layers to creating a story: picking the right current topic, formulating your story in a manner that fits the topic, gathering quotes, interviewing those directly involved, and taking pictures to go along with everything.

Even though the previously mentioned renovations story was quite demanding, I had a great time finding out more about the changes to the school—it was even the issue’s featured story.

The other and most important aspect of the class is the people. Yes, that may sound cheesy, but who writes for the ECHO is why we get entertaining stories and where the charm comes from.

There wouldn’t have been the legendary trio of Groundhog Day stories if it wasn’t for the banter among fellow seniors Trent Liptak, Elizabeth Michael, and myself arguing about if Phil was a crook or not.

Each ECHO member has their own unique specialty when writing stories: could be writing sports, features, opinion pieces, or just the news passing along the school.

Even though we may procrastinate—a lot—we do truly enjoy making each issue different in order to make all those moms reading happy.

So consider joining the ECHO staff next year—it just may end up surprising you in the end.

This has been senior Alijah Smith writing, and I’ll catch you on the next ECHO Monday.