Over my four years of high school I have tried my best to put myself out there and create new ideas to make WJ a better experience for me. It was a struggle because a couple of my friends from middle school left WJ so I had to set out and make new friends.

The most surprising thing I ever did was to join the wrestling team. I had never been a sports guy. I have been a music and theater guy my whole life. For a long time, I thought sports were stupid and didn’t understand why people would go on a mat and beat each other up for fun. However, freshman year, I succumbed to my neighbor’s recruitment to be a wrestler and tried it out. I was really small and unathletic, and in freshman year I was kind of like the unofficial mascot of the team. I had great coaches and support from my teammates, and made friends I never would’ve met if I didn’t take the leap to join the wrestling team, which in the end was one of the best decisions I made in my life.

I have had a strong interest in baseball and football when I moved here in fifth grade, and when I realized I will never be a baseball player, I wanted to find a way to be a part of baseball on the outside. That way turned out to be journalism. I jumped in on the Pitch train as soon as I could in the second semester of my sophomore year. The articles I wrote weren’t always on sports, but in my junior year, I was chosen to be a sports editor.

Everyday I looked forward to my fifth period class, because my Pitch buddies were so fun to work with. They were hard working, yet they were able to have fun when it was appropriate. Joining the Pitch was probably the best decision I ever made in high school because it made me realize my love for writing. I even expanded my range, sometimes writing A&E articles and writing my “Jake’s Take” columns this year.

I was also the PA announcer for the baseball team, and the sports guy on the morning announcements once or twice a week. I even had an alter ego,“Fedora Friday” every Friday.

In high school, I looked to make a presence in my four years here, make sure that my friends were having fun as much as I was, and bring new ideas that may carry on after I graduate.