It’s like spaghetti without meatballs. Or SpongeBob without Patrick. Or a student here without an iPhone. It’s an entity unfilled without its pairing facet, leaving a lonely alternative. It’s me, co-editor-in-chief of The Red Ledger, without my founding partner, Ginger Hervey.
Coming onto the newspaper staff as a freshman, I have watched two years of graduates move on. I always start the next year feeling excited, sure, but also emptiness in shapes only the recent graduates could fill. This fall will encompass the same brief grieving process with an entire new levity; I will lose my number one partner-in-crime.
Those who have witnessed me and Ginger over the years know, or have suspected, that we are nothing if not akin to an old married couple, except with the added pressures of creating and managing an online newspaper while leading and training an ever-growing staff. Sounds like a disaster, right? But it hasn’t been one at all. In fact, it’s been the most incredible experience I’ve yet to conquer in high school, and it’s been so helpful to have such an intelligent, hilarious, and wonderfully capable friend along the way.
Those who don’t know Ginger very well have missed out on the opportunity to get to know one of the most gifted students at this school. She’s the girl you go to if you need something done. She’s wholly committed to each of the many things she’s involved in. She’s mastered time management the best anyone can. She’s going to Mizzou in the fall and will be part of their wildly prestigious journalism honors program. She will make an impact in the lives of everyone she meets. She will make an impact in the world.
Each graduating class leaves a greater hole in our staff, hearts, and snack cabinet, only to be filled by aspiring newcomers, eager yet unaware of the multifaceted entity that is high school journalism. This year, those newcomers have mighty big shoes to fill.
On behalf of The Red Ledger staff, thank you for everything you’ve done for us, Ginger. And on behalf of myself, I thank you a million times more. I don’t know what The Red Ledger, or myself, would be without you.
