Dear Green Pride staff,

There’s no good way to start off a goodbye letter, especially one that is meant to encompass the past two-and-a-half years of my time working on De Soto High School’s wonderful student publication. Although I joined The Green Pride the second semester of my sophomore year, I was lucky enough to be considered a guest reporter for our website before becoming a staff member. I was in 21st Century Journalism at the time and had written a story about the school day that everyone got off because of the Royals’ victory in the World Series—woah, throwback. Sullivan thought that the story was good enough to go on the web, and after posting it, he asked if I wanted to join staff next semester. I had never considered actually joining the newspaper staff, but I loved to write and I didn’t want to have to fill the hole in my schedule with a block of lifting weights, so I filled out an application and—spoiler alert—I got in.

Now, newspaper may be a chill class some of the time, but it’s definitely not easy. I hadn’t truly considered how much I’d have to talk to people I didn’t know. For any non-newspaper folks, let me tell you, there are few things more awkward than being an underclassman reading off hastily written questions to a stranger who only knows how to respond with one-word answers that you’ll have to somehow magically work into a full-length story. After you’ve spent a while learning how to interview people and write articles, the Editor(s)-in-Chief sort of toss you into the deep end of a pool known as InDesign. InDesign is like Microsoft Word and Photoshop had a super baby that grew up into a hormonal teenager that refuses to do anything you say. And that super baby/teenager is what we use to design every single one of our issues, and some of you staff members get to look forward to raising that difficult teenager next year. Good luck, parents.

There are numerous other struggles in newspaper—the Oxford comma, web story deadlines, page designs in general—but those could fill up their own story, and I would like to spend more time talking about all of the fantastic staff members that I’ve come to know and love.

Maggie, Ella, Hayley and Justine, you were all relatively quiet this year, to the point where I had to check to make sure you were all still present and that the obnoxious antics of the third row hadn’t driven you all away in annoyance. Although I didn’t get to know each of you very well individually, I’m very grateful for the hard work that you all managed to put in during your first year on staff.

Peyton, Daniel, Rose and Keegan, video crew is kind of a cult within a cult, and you all have some sort of voodoo that gives you mysterious powers to know how to work all of the random programs and cameras that you use. I’m still not even 100 percent sure how to work the Macs, so props to you for figuring out the key to technology magic. Also, I feel like the video crew was closer to the rest of staff this year than in previous years, and that just made our staff feel more unified as a whole.

Alicia, I would like to formally thank you for the present that you gave me during Secret Santa this year. I don’t think I properly expressed my gratitude for the amazing vegan candy and the green, styrofoam cube that you gave me—probably because I was too shocked when the entire staff decided that everyone would bite my cube and put it up on a shelf for display. So thank you for that wonderful gift, and also please dispose of that cube when Lizzy isn’t paying attention. It’s covered in the old mouth germs of 12 different people.

Maya and Ally, you two are wild. Right when the day starts to become stagnant, someone would catch you two doing something spontaneous and weird that would liven everyone else’s spirits. Although I heard you two won’t be continuing on with newspaper next year, thank you for deciding to join staff in the first place.

Camryn, your name is the longest on staff, and that makes things very difficult when I have to fit it horizontally in one column on a page design. Despite your name’s length, you are the staff reporter who took the most initiative in regards to workload and decided to take on the difficult task of designing pages. If you continue on with newspaper, I fully expect that you’ll be the queen of page designs come your senior year.

Speaking of page design queens, Abby, you have definitely made some of the best page designs on staff this year. Compared to my very first catastrophes that can only loosely be defined as page designs, it looks as if you’ve been designing pages for years. Your art is fantastic, but in addition to your skills on staff, you are such a lighthearted and interesting person. I’m glad we got to bond over the X-Files, and hearing all of your somewhat unnerving transcendental experiences and conspiracy theories almost made me want to believe that aliens and ghosts do exist in this world. Almost.

Sam, it’s been two years and I still don’t know how you feel about me. You’re an amazing designer and writer, but I literally have no idea how to read your emotions, so I’ve spent all of our time together assuming that I had probably annoyed you in some way. Your poker face is giving Lady Gaga a run for her money. That was probably a bad joke, but, like I said, I wouldn’t be able to tell if you thought it was funny or not.

Clara and Alyse, while you two may be quiet during class, you’re both integral to the whole newspaper atmosphere. Clara, when other people struggled with story ideas, you somehow managed to come up with an original twist or interesting opinion idea that put everyone else’s basic ideas to shame. Alyse, as you know, I make a lot of stupid jokes. I can’t help myself, they just come out of my mouth before I can stop them. While everyone else would groan and roll their eyes, you would find them stupid enough to be funny. Maybe you were fake laughing because it was pathetic when I was the only one laughing at my own dumb jokes. Either way, I’m thankful for your pity laughs.

Ellie, you are always a very positive person, and your laugh always manages to lighten up the room. Whether you were taking charge of the web story schedule or diffusing the wild nature that is known as Lizzy Arnold, you provide a valuable backbone to The Green Pride, and the staff wouldn’t be the same without you.

Lizzy, you’re an enigma. You’re predictable and unpredictable at the same time: predictable in the fact that you will inevitably say something insane and hilarious, yet unpredictable in the fact that nobody has any idea what exactly it is that is going to come out of your mouth next. Regardless of whatever meme you throw at the staff, you always manage to work hard to lift up everyone’s spirits as well as raise the quality of our newspaper.

Kelly, everything you say is instantly relatable, and stressful days became suddenly less so when you would decide to come to the back of the room and gather us into an informal senior circle. Thank you for all the opinions you shared and especially the tea you divulged, because I am always the last to find out the gossip.

Rylee, Reaghan and Johnny, I could write paragraphs about how each of you inspired me to be my best and then later annoyed me when I was in the midst of one of my infamous this-newspaper-isn’t-going-to-get-sent-out-on-time stress headaches. I’m definitely sure I could write way more paragraphs about how I irritated all of you, though. Each of you is an amazing individual, and I know that you, Rylee and Reaghan, are going to do great things no matter where you two decide to go and what future you decide to pursue. Johnny, you’re stuck with me for another year, so we’re gonna still have to wait and see how this plays out.

And to The Green Pride staff, I know that sometimes it’s disheartening when your peers complain about the content of our stories and discard the issues on the hallway floors, but don’t forget that there are other students and teachers here at De Soto who see your hard work and are inspired by it. Before even joining staff my sophomore year, I remember having the impression that the school’s journalists was high up on the teenage social hierarchy, and I always looked forward to each new issue they handed out. One issue in particular made a lasting impression on me. It included a detailed spread on the LGBTQ+ community and its interaction with the student body of DHS, and it had numerous graphics representing student affiliations and opinions. That spread is one of the reasons why I always perk up at the mention of someone wanting to do a poll—I love the idea of giving students a voice, but also of using our paper to influence the student body in our own special way. And that’s what you’re doing on The Green Pride staff: you are both representing the students of De Soto and simultaneously impacting them. Of course there is always going to be someone who doesn’t like what we decide to cover, but all you need to do is hand them a complaint slip that they probably won’t have the effort to fill out and continue to work hard at what you all are already great at.

I’m so honored to have had the chance to work with all of you. Y’all better continue uploading The Green Pride to issuu.com, or else I’ll come back—and I know that we would all rather avoid the awkward aura that I manage to carry around with me. Despite my social awkwardness, I want to truly thank you all for journeying through these years with me.

Sincerely,

Micah (Mocha)