I adore and belong in room 305, the yearbook or "the cult's" room because it’s always pushing me to give my best work. In the four years I’ve been in the class, I have learned something new every year stepping into different roles like design editor, head design editor, and editor-in-chief. I’ve been shown how to communicate, organize, guide my creativity, and channel it into one thing. There have been different challenges but I’ve overcome them and found my place in a school of over 2700 students.

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Design has not only allowed me to push my creativity limits but also brought out my leadership abilities. My junior year I was promoted to head design editor with two other editors. This entailed teaching our four new designers everything I’d learned the year before. This role pushed me to go past being that really nice person who doesn’t talk much, to a person who will not settle for anything but greatness. The person who isn't afraid to push the whole staff or group of editors to do better. This role involved nicely giving the new designers constructive criticism, while keeping their respect and trust, which if you asked me about doing three years ago I would have ran with fear, but now, it's something I think I handle well.

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Yearbook has taught me how to overcome any challenge I face. What do you do if you’re swamped with so much work and still have two designs due tomorrow? When your group members haven’t carried their weight this deadline? What about when you have to teach your whole class how a deadline works but you’re terrified of speaking in public? All of these valuable communication skills that some do not learn until late in life I have been lucky enough to learn in a two-hour “blow-off” class.