November Editor's Note

Every year, the months seem to whiz by faster than they did the year before. It feels like we honestly began school yesterday, but in reality, quarter grades have already come out, we’ve passed Halloween, and Thanksgiving break is just a week away. Soon I will be attending my last Yam Festival at Westridge. This season, as Thanksgiving comes closer, I’m beginning to really reflect on what I am truly grateful for. 

 

Right now my thoughts are guided by the school shooting in Santa Clarita. It feels like almost every month, more and more young people are forced to confront grief and violence in new and public ways. Children the same age as me and younger are thrown into activism. Remembering the lives lost and those brave enough to share their experiences with gun violence, I find myself grateful for the life I have been given. I feel a need to let go of the selfish dramas of my life because the world is so much larger than that. As a community, we need to find more ways to hold each other up and celebrate the joy and beautiful life that we do have. 

 

Senior year is chock-full of endings and beginnings, making it easy to get lost in the chaos of living in a future that doesn’t exist yet. A wise teacher of mine said to me this week, “Don’t sacrifice the present by living in the future.” 

 

I love journalism for this very reason, because it tells the important stories of the now and documents community. I think that our little school paper provides an opportunity to encourage empathy and tell the Westridge story in a clearer way. 

 

In this edition, we intentionally focused on community. We wrote the stories that we felt might be the closest to home or relate most to our campus and our collective emotions. Managing editor Emily S. reported on the Period Movement and how Westridge tackles menstruation. Reporter Jackie Y. snagged the A1 story on the Westridge-famous Instagram account, @overheardwestridge. Brand-new freshman staffer Katie S. created a Trump Impeachment for Dummies timeline, giving students a chance to understand a complicated issue. Our staff has been working hard and is proud to share these stories with you. 

 

So this is my motto going into Thanksgiving break, as well as the motto of Spyglass as we continue to do our jobs as the storytellers on this campus: to live in the present, capitalize on community,  and take stock of the lives we have. We invite you to join us.