Benji Maman staff writer

Because of home learning, writing in school was a lot different this year for the journalists. They  enjoyed it, but were relieved to be back in the classroom.

Some journalists say it was surprisingly easy to come up with ideas, while others say it was ridiculously hard to come up with ideas. They still loved writing though.

“I loved being on the journalism staff this year,” staff writer junior Candice Anvari said. “This class was definitely the highlight of my pandemic experience because even though the pandemic was a difficult transition,  journalism allowed me to explore interesting stories, work with the amazing people on our staff and just have fun.”

For editor-in-chief senior Alya Mehrtash, it was easy to come up with ideas to write about due to COVID coverage and how that affected all of school.

“Surprisingly, it was actually easier in most cases to come up with content, because there were SO many stories that came out of the pandemic, especially in regards to its impact on our community,” Mehrtash said.

For copy editor senior Eva Levin, it was quite the opposite. For her, it was very hard to come up with something to write about. She thinks it’s astonishing that students were able to come up with ideas in the first place.

“IT WAS SO HARD TO COME UP WITH CONTENT. SO UNBELIEVABLY HARD,” Levin said. “That’s one of the main complaints I’m getting, that there wasn’t a lot of content. Duh. Nothing happened this year. It’s a marvel we managed to find stuff that was happening to fill our website and pages.”

Student-journalists had to adjust how they conducted interviews. You couldn’t do an actual in-person interview.

“One of the biggest obstacles was that it was really hard to get a hold of people, because, in the past, you could just see them in the hallway or, for teachers, go to their classrooms. This year, though, you couldn’t do that, so you just really had to hope that they would respond to your email, your text or your DM for example. That didn’t always work in our favor,” Mehrtash said.

Levin was so happy that she was back in the actual classroom because to her, it quite literally felt like a home.

“I missed writing at school so much,” Levin said. “That room is like my home. Even if its walls are painted the absolute ugliest colors, that room is still my home. The best way for me to describe being back in that room was at peace. I felt so unbelievably at peace.”