It was early on in my first year of high school swim when I first realized that my school had a newspaper.  

The desk of the pool had a stack of the most recent issue of the Viking Vanguard, the grayish paper almost blending in with the yellowish beige of the desk.  

I was early that day, so I picked it up after noticing a blurb at the top advertising a review of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” I’d recently seen that movie, and my interest was piqued. I’d liked it but held no delusions that it was a flawless movie. The paper’s review, by contrast, was glowing.  

I began to wonder: “Was this something I could do in a class and get my elective credits while doing so?” Then, I promptly forgot about the whole thing, my brain instead filled with the chlorinated smell of the pool and the rhythm of swimming.

Later that year, we signed up for our sophomore classes. In my district, students start going to high school in our sophomore year, so I hadn’t had the chance to take any of the interesting electives offered. Instead, I was stuck in a stuffy portable for my Life Issues class and homeroom, waiting for the year to be over so I could finally start the freedom and fun of high school.

We were looking through the course catalog, and when it came to scheduling my electives, I was stuck.

Did I want to take Auto Shop, where I’d get to work with my hands?

Should I take Business and Marketing, which would teach me skills I could use throughout my life?

Or did I want to do Yearbook, where I would end up covering the culture of the school and come home with a physical manifestation of all my work?

Then, once again, the box for Newspaper Production jumped out at me. I ended up picking that if only because of that one story I read at the pool and it ended up being one of the most important decisions of my life so far.

The first day of the class, I was a little bit worried. I only knew one other person who signed up for the class, and I was still unsure that my decision was the right one. Thankfully, two of my friends were put in the class as well, and I knew one of the juniors that year.

On the first day of class, it was a lot.

Mrs. Coyer, who everyone just calls Coyer, spent the first half of the period imprinting into our brains that we were storytellers, that we were writing down the history of this school and this community on that same grayish paper I’d seen that day at the pool.

Frankly, it was a lot to take in, but I could tell I was going to like it here.

After that lecture, we went outside, stood in a V formation, and were told to flap our wings and honk. This lesson, where we were told that we are all geese and how we’ll all support each other in this class. “If a geese gets injured or tired, it’ll go to the back of the V, and others will take its place,” Coyer said. “When someone in this class is overworked or tired, we’ll be here to help you.”

And we did. I stepped up to become the Arts and Entertainment editor after just one month of the class, helping one editor who was editing three sections at once. I’ve stayed until the very last minute before our deadline to make sure we were able to get the paper on time. I’ve driven all the way up to Seattle to pick up the paper once every six weeks for over a year now. And I’ve also been helped by people in this class. People have helped me design and layout pages on days where I’m overwhelmed with stress or have swim practice. They’ve been there for me as a shoulder to lean on in tough days. And they’ve became great friends who I feel I can depend on for anything.

These three years of newspaper are possibly the most integral parts of my high school life. I’ve made connections with a massive variety of people, from former students to a local news anchor to even the owner of a recording studio where Nirvana recorded their first album. I’ve learned to ask questions, to be more aware of the world around me, and to be more outgoing and comfortable talking with anyone.

Finally, it led me to take Running Start classes, which changed the direction of my high school life drastically. I took these because I wanted to take classes more tailored to my interests in film and journalism, I wanted to earn my AA so I can double major when I get to college, and so I could have experience in a college environment with that safety net of my family and friends. All these decisions, all these moments, started with seeing that one newspaper at the pool.