Going into high school, I thought I had it all figured out.
I knew exactly which friends I would hang out with, that I wasn’t athletic and that I was a shy, quiet girl who kept to herself.
But almost immediately, everything changed.
It all started with a last-minute decision to join the cross country team.
My friends had all decided to do a sport over the summer, so, not wanting to feel left out, I followed two of them to the track.
It was grueling and hard. I quickly learned that I had virtually no endurance or skill in running.
Yet there was something inside of me that didn’t let me quit. I quietly made deals with myself under the 90-degree heat.
If you did the summer camp, you might as well join the team. If you did a season of cross country, you might as well do track. If you did a year of running, you might as well continue.
The rash decision to join a sport I had never heard about not only led me to discover sides of myself I never would’ve unlocked, but brought me so many more external joys.
I made some of my closest friends to this day — people I never would have met, and most importantly, it led me to The Accolade.
As a freshman, I had always envisioned myself joining the school yearbook, but after joining cross country, I began to look at the newspapers around school a little longer.
It wasn’t until the then editor-in-chief came to my English class to promote the program, that I decided to make the bold move.
However, this turned out to be the best decision I could have ever made.
From learning how to interview to writing factual stories, I began to slowly fall in love with the art of journalism.
I loved how I was able to report on true and interesting stories, like my feature on Mei-Ling Leal during my sophomore year, while maintaining my own style of writing.
Seeing that I was able to share someone’s passion through my storytelling motivated me to continue down this path as a writer, and possibly even step into a bigger role.
The little spark of courage that encouraged me to continue cross country and join The Accolade grew when I spontaneously decided to apply as the Sports editor.
Shockingly, I got the role along with my co-editor, and a new field of possibilities opened up to me. I couldn’t believe I had received a coveted editor position, but along with the prestige came a lot of insecurity.
I stumbled and fell through various mistakes in my first few months as an editor. As I gained more experience, I realized that all these times of failure have been the stepping stones to my path of success.
I have cherished my time with The Accolade, from the 9 p.m. late nights to bonding with exciting people who I never would have gotten close with had we not been on staff together.
As I reach the end of my high school journey, I take a look back and look at the shell of the 14-year-old who used to stand in my place.
The girl who thought she had everything figured out.
While I got some things right, like how my favorite color is still pink and how I still dislike chocolate, I find that a lot has changed at the same time.
I’ve met new friends, ones I hope to cherish for a lifetime, gone down paths I never expected myself to go through and I even plan on majoring in history at the University of California, Berkeley.
And I owe it all to that one late summer night, when I decided to try something new.
