“Are we sure that name is right?” “Where’s the stylebook?” “Align that text to the baseline grid!” Cue the computer crash. Welcome to the chaos of Room 111: the Hi’s Eye newsroom. This is where the magic happens. Where we brainstorm story ideas, track down possible leads, edit articles after school while gorging on chips and making coffee with our Keurig and, most importantly, where our Hi’s Eye staff has become a family.

Three years ago, we were a group of 21 sophomores who were still figuring out high school—and each other’s names. Hailing from different sports teams, music ensembles and clubs, we had one thing in common: journalism.

Some of us took the class that year to fill a requirement, others to improve our writing or appease our parents, but one way or another, we all ended up in Room 111—and we all stayed. By now, we’ve figured out each other’s names (we’re still working on the high school part) and, more importantly, we’ve found our voices.

Senior year is filled with lasts—last first day, last sports season, last musical or concert, last ciabatta. But for us, our senior year marked the beginning of our true and in-depth Hi’s Eye experience. With 24 issues to take on and eager minds ready for anything, Room 111 became a place filled with endless possibilities: an open book waiting for us to write our own chapter.

As an uncensored, student-run newspaper, the Hi’s Eye staff has an enormous responsibility to our peers and community. Each week, it’s our job to find the stories we think need to be told while holding ourselves accountable for what we produce. This responsibility, while enormous at times, has been an incredible honor.

Hi’s Eye has taught us the meaning of hard work and dedication. It has taught us that our voices are important and deserve to be heard. It has taught us how to lead with humility and to be willing to ask questions, not just answer them. We’ve learned to be hungry for the truth and we’ve developed a fearless determination to find it.

But Hi’s Eye has also taught us that sometimes you just need to eat munchkins and rock out to early 2000s jams before getting to work. It has taught us that soda and warm cookies can solve almost anything. We’ve learned that the perfect pun will always lighten the room and sometimes the things you care about most have to be done for you, and not for your GPA. Most of all, we’ve learned that families come in all shapes and sizes, even if that size is 24 people and your home is Room 111.

Within the four walls of the journalism room, we’ve built relationships that will far outlast our time at WHS. Our final farewell to Hi’s Eye is one that’s hard to swallow, but we’re ready to share our voices elsewhere. We will always treasure Room 111, but we know it’s budding with new minds ready to start their own journey. It’s our time to sign off.