I’m sweating, my stomach is one giant knot, I can barely breathe; waiting. Waiting for the sentence that will determine whether every hour of work has paid off, or if we just weren’t “good enough” this year. I look to my side and see two of my peers who have just as much of a stake in this as I do, and I can’t help but think of the disappointment that might return to their faces. Then . . . “a Gold Crown.”

Four of my peers and I traveled to New York City to attend the 89th annual Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) Journalism Conference, March 17-22. Once there, our mission was to return with a Gold Crown. And the amount of relief we felt when our name was called as a winner was unexplainable.

Being Editor-in-Chief of The Feather as only a junior, I had a lot of odds working against me. With a young staff, no one, not even our adviser, believed that we could produce more than last year’s “super staff” that had over 15 seniors. But, when our staff slowly grew from 14 to 35, I knew that with the right motivation we could do just as well, if not better than last year.

Though we have different strengths than last year’s staff, The Feather staff has increased the amount of social media, photos, slideshows and videos far beyond any other year. We found our rhythm and continued to build.

This is the reason that I think our staff succeeded this year. We didn’t try to repeat everything last year’s staff did, but we created all new strengths and elements in The Feather. By doing this, each member was able to write about topics they enjoy, rather than covering topics out of tradition.

As a junior, winning this year has only inspired me more for my next, and final, year on staff. Already, the returning members of the staff are brainstorming ideas to make next year even more productive. We want to introduce all new aspects, and continue to develop the ones we have.

Looking back on this year, I am blown away by the total amount of work that The Feather staff produced. Not only did we produce more content this year than others, we were able to reach out towards our student body better. With the help of social media, more students seem to be interested in their school’s publication.

To be the face of The Feather is a huge and incredible responsibility, but most people don’t understand the hard work of my editors, Maddie Yee,’13, Viviana Hinojosa, ’14, and Ryan King, ’15. Without them, my entire life would be centered around this site, but this year I had the opportunity to also play sports, be involved in school events and many other things.

The relationships that I have gained throughout my journalism career have helped in the success of our publication. We are a team. We sometimes compare ourselves to sports teams, saying that we have “the longest season” as we work from the first day of school to the last. In doing this, we spend many hours during school, after school and outside of school working together. And let me say, that these 35 people are the easiest group of students to get along with. Every member is hardworking and motivated to contribute their best to The Feather.

I could not be more grateful for the staff and adviser that I have. They never give up and they are, most of the time, encouraging. Not only do they put up with my bossiness, critiques and moods, but they also give me respect and actually listen to my pleas.

For more opinions, read the March 21 article, Senior invited to leadership conference, improves skills. For more information about The Feather winning a Gold Crown, read the March 25 article, Feather receives Gold Crown, surpasses expectations.