Do you remember how big high schoolers felt when you were little? Thinking about my time at WJ, my mind can’t help but shoot back to sitting in Quartermaine with my mom when I was barely an elementary schooler and watching the swarm of giants crowd the counters racing for food. They felt so cool, so old, so mature. Now I see those same people as freshmen and avoid G Square during lunch at all costs in fear of their chaos. It’s crazy the way in which our perspectives change as we grow and change ourselves.
I remember getting copies of The Pitch delivered to us during North Bethesda MS Writer’s Club and thinking it was the coolest thing but never imagining my name on those pages. Four years later,
The Pitch has come to dominate my life and I know, will someday dominate my high school memories. Whether in 193 or on Zoom, Pitch has always been my favorite part of the day and the thing that kept me going through Covid and the insanity of senior year. (On occasion I’ve even skipped school, come just for Pitch, and then gone home again but don’t tell my other teachers!) I want to give a special thanks to my news team for carrying The Pitch on their shoulders, Ms. Borrelli for being my unofficial other mother (or actual mother depending on who you ask), and my partner-in-crime, Jillian, without whom I would never have perfected my good cop side of our good cop/bad cop bit.
The other day I went to the last meeting of the Montgomery County Regional SGA, the little known countywide SGA that means the world to me. After saying my goodbyes to my friends and the Carver Educational Services Center, I went to my car flooded by tears. It turns out that after six years of endless jokes about MCPS, WJ, and school in general, I’ve actually found myself a home here and homes are hard to leave. Next fall, I’m going across the country. I’m going to build a new life with new people and I can’t wait but I know the relationships I built here and the lessons I learned are going to be the foundation of everything I do. I’m not the type of person to cling onto high school or see these years as the best ones of my life but I am eternally grateful to the people here who have helped me make a home out of WJ.