Journalism has played an interesting role in my life for the last couple of years. 

Back in the fall of 2017 I remember walking into my very first journalism class: Journalism 101 at Cherry Hill East. I had signed up for the course for two reasons. 

The first, and main, reason was that I had some genuine interest in getting to know more about journalism because of my grandfather. Growing up he would regale me with stories from his roughly 40-year career at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and each would wow me, every time. From stories about going to Muhammed Ali’s house in Cherry Hill for an interview, to singing “High Hopes” with the late, great Phillies sportscaster, Harry Kalas, while interviewing him for a profile piece he had been working on, I’d listen and think “wow, that’d be a pretty awesome thing to go do myself someday.” 

The second reason, to be completely honest, was that I was told I had to get involved with at least one thing in high school other than athletics, and so I figured, “Well, why not the newspaper then.”

(A quick side note, I remember when I signed up, I purposely chose not to be in the honors course because the requirement for the honors students was to produce two articles for Eastside, East’s newspaper, each quarter, and I thought that there was no way I would be able to handle that. Looking back it’s a thought so ridiculous to me now that I can only laugh at it.) 

So with those two reasons in mind, I walked into my first class as a shy freshman, sat in the corner where I wouldn’t really be noticed, and blindly dove into the world of journalism. 

As my freshman year went on, Eastside eventually opened up applications for new members. I remember it being a huge deal and being very nervous about it. I was hesitant to even submit an application out of a fear of not being accepted and a low confidence in my abilities as a young journalist. While I had completely fallen in love with my journalism 101 class and subsequently all things journalism, I still doubted my writing skills and didn’t think I’d ever be any good. 

Eventually I convinced one of my friends to submit an application with me, even though she was never going to actually be a part of Eastside. However, when I walked down to the journalism room to submit my application, my nerves and fears got the best of me and I did a complete 180, walked out the door, and thought, “Maybe next year.”  

Well, sure enough next year came around, and after some unexpected turns, I did in fact find myself walking into my first class/meeting as an official member of the newspaper in my sophomore year, but it was as a member of WordsWorth at Moorestown Friends School.

As I walked into Lab 2 that first day, quickly grabbed the seat in the corner yet again, and stayed silent the entire class period, I still didn’t fully know what to expect and still wasn’t quite sure if I was meant to be where I was. I certainly didn’t think I’d be running the paper just three years later.

After my first or second class, I started to realize that there was something special about WordsWorth. I came to that realization after my very first pitch meeting—a meeting I’m pretty sure I wasn’t originally supposed to be a part of. 

I remember Ms. Day and Ms. Galler took all of the new staff members out of the room to teach them some basic journalism lessons while the leadership board (still called the editorial board at the time) held their first pitch meeting of the new school year. Despite having taken a journalism 101 course the year before, I got up and assumed I should go with the rest of the new staffers, but Ms. Day and Ms. Galler stopped me and said that I could stay and participate in the meeting instead. So I sat back down, nervous as ever, and got to story pitching.

I don’t remember if I actually pitched any ideas that day, but I do remember walking out of that meeting with a sense of belonging for the first time. It felt like this group of people actually cared about what I had to say and truly valued me and my work.

That small anecdote is, essentially, what WordsWorth is all about. 

The Wordsworth staff is in on a Saturday working hard on their April Fools edition! @mfsfox pic.twitter.com/7tjH0U10Xc

— Meredith Godley (@MGodleyMFS) March 7, 2020

From that point on I started becoming more and more confident in the newsroom, participating more regularly in pitch meetings, taking on more articles than I could probably handle at the time, and enjoying every little bit of it. 

WordsWorth gave me the confidence to express myself and share my thoughts with the world without a fear of judgement or rejection, and taught me to be proud of my work. The paper also provided an escape from the stress of high school and anything else that might have been going on at the time. I always knew that no matter what was going on, or how bad my day might be, when I step into Lab 2 all of that stays at the door. 

All of this is due to the spectacular staff and advisers at WordsWorth. During my three years with the paper I have met some of the most amazing, smart, and creative people ever and am so grateful to have gotten the opportunity to work with them, and more importantly, call them friends. 

I write all this to say that I never envisioned myself at the point I’m at now—Editor-in-Chief of WordsWorth and about to go across the country to major in journalism for the next four years in pursuit of a career in the field. Yet, here I am. The world works in quite weird ways, I guess.

I am so incredibly proud of all of the outstanding things we were able to accomplish during my time at WordsWorth, from our live sports coverage, to our coverage of a global pandemic and a presidential election, to the creation of the WordsWorth Editorial Board and Staff Manual, and so, so much more. I will be forever grateful for all of the amazing opportunities that WordsWorth provided me and cannot wait to watch this paper continue to grow.