2022, first day of sophomore year, room 162.
The room had very tall desks with tall chairs to match. On top the desks sat large laptops connected to mounted desktops.
Every inch of the class seemed to have something covering it, from pictures, plaques, magnets, postcards and a lot of WSU gear.
A large ESPN banner hung up in the back, with small writing in the corner.
Old yearbooks lined the shelves, with posters on the cabinets above. “Say your name and S P E L L it,” “Sprinkle in gold coins,” “Sometimes you have to kill the puppies.”
In the front corner stood a large safe-looking things with camera labels on the glass.
This classroom, with so much to look at, felt like candy for my brain. This was going to be my classroom, my place. My fifth period class, my first (non-required) elective class since seventh grade, video production one. This was the first class of this type I’d ever taken, but it was also the class I was most excited for. I didn’t know just yet what it would entail, but just being in that classroom made me feel giddy for the year to come.
The teacher stood on a stool at the front of the classroom. She was loud as she explained what the class was and how the year was going to look. She was sincere and excited. This made me more excited. Behind her, a large purple banner was hung with yellow writing: “If they don’t tell you to move, you’re not close enough. Coyerism #14.” I thought about that phrase, those simple yet powerful 11 words. I wasn’t sure why this phrase spoke to me so much, but I knew it felt important and somehow life changing.
2024, first day of senior year, room 162.
The bell rang signaling the end of homeroom. First period, Video Productions, (the second and third year students had a combined class, with the purpose of creating our program’s show, Viking News Network). The title of co-executive producer had been passed onto me, and I was equally excited and terrified of my new responsibilities. Everything I learned in the past two years had led up to this point. My mind whirls with ideas, all the possibilities of things to create, storyboards drawing out in my head. The other executive producer and I wanted to produce two shows a week, a big step from what we accomplished last year.
But I was determined.
The beginning of class starts, and I explained how we wanted a show out by Friday, and we don’t have much time; only three days. As everyone started working, I saw the potential we had.
I’ve never been good with my words. There are so many thoughts and feelings that are so hard to convey with words. Most of my spoken sentences are a quick succession of words that maybe 50 percent of the time make sense, leading to them ending in “you know what I mean.” When I was younger, I wanted to be an author or a writer; the idea of making people feel something with my words fascinated me. I wanted to create something that when people read it, they felt a strong emotion. But, I quickly figured out that my writing skills were mediocre and had little to no effect on people’s emotions (except for making me feel frustrated). Something I realized, being part of the media program, was that I don’t need words to create emotion. Visual story telling is such a powerful thing that I didn’t know much about until I joined.