I can not express in words what an amazing experience I’ve had being a part of the Portola Pilot for its third volume edition. It has truly been an honor to say that I was here when we first launched our newspaper, and it is an even greater honor to now say that I served as co-Editor-in-Chief of Orange County’s Online Best of Show.

Our production team is composed of our school’s finest writers, artists, photographers and designers, and I can’t emphasize how crucial they were in helping me serve the Portola Pilot. To say they have helped me grow is an understatement; they have helped me mature, understand and treasure every single moment of this year before it became a lifelong memory.

As I sign off from the Portola Pilot, I want to thank my co-Editor-in-Chief, Maryam, for making it through the year with me. From giving me hugs every morning during class, to writing superlatives together, it has truly been a blessing to work with her. Of course, nothing would have been possible without our adviser, Ms. Rapp, who has guided me and our entire team in the right direction to help us achieve the best we ever could.

Reflecting back on the year, I realize that it’s not so much the title of “editor-in-chief” that I will miss, but the small things that came with that title – like having writers text me late at night to edit their article, or staying up to fix a story’s deadline so that it would be posted at the right time.

With all of the crazy new things that we’ve tried this year, I’m extremely grateful for each and every staff member this year for pushing through with all the grand ideas we’ve proposed. Even with sometimes less than a month to plan, design, write and edit stories, we’ve embraced the challenges, instead of running away from them.

The good news is, I get to look forward to coming back to this amazing team next year as we grow even further. While this is a goodbye to the 2018-2019 year, it’s also a hello to Portola Pilot’s fourth volume edition. Bring it on!