Please miss us

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF

I’ve spent my entire high school career as a teen journalist.
For the past four years, every opinion I’ve felt strongly about, every person who has intrigued me, every event I thought worthy of recognition, I was able to write about in a 38,000-circulation, daily newspaper.
This ability is so deeply woven into the fabric of my life that I forgot other people haven’t had that opportunity. Until now, I failed to see how hard informing the community of upcoming high school events will be without Unleashed.
And that was a crippling realization.
Just last month, I told Unleashed Coordinator Adriana Janovich that the program had probably changed me in ways I probably didn’t even realize. Losing the program all of a sudden made those hidden changes quite apparent. Since I was a freshman — a bottom-of-the-totem-pole, supposed-to-be-quaking-in-my-boots freshman — I’ve interviewed principals, teachers and upperclassmen and ventured into uncharted territory.
Now, I can speak to a cafeteria full of superiors without any flutter of nerves. I can enter a group of people I don’t know and be fascinated by their stories. I can ask questions that may seem a bit bold, but I know are needed.
None of those abilities result from your basic high school experiences; Unleashed meticulously formed each.
Another change, in addition to growing in confidence, is my ever-blossoming respect and appreciation for Yakima. Any complaints I may have made about this community became obsolete when a reporter’s notepad led me to a greater understanding of the people and passions that form my hometown.
During my freshman year, I met a man who barbecued for kids for free every Sunday at the skate park. Later, I learned how the community responded with food and drink donations after the story ran. At that time, I just thought I was sharing a story, but I came to find out that, in a small way, I was helping with a local good deed.
More recently, I had the opportunity to get to know the charismatic owner of Wild Lucy’s. Though it is a clothing store I would visit anyway, my job as an Unleashed reporter allowed me to see the community goals and inviting personalities that lay beneath the unique styles.
Those rewarding experiences don’t even take into account the student editor role I’ve held for the past two years. That in itself has been a growing experience. For five hours a week, I got to work in the newsroom alongside reporters and photographers who quickly became friends.
Besides enjoying witty banter with the always-laughing sports guys, my support of journalists and photojournalists developed into an admiration I will now always carry, regardless of what happens to the industry.
The people who work daily to create the Herald-Republic are truly commendable. Their jobs often make them subjects of criticism, but nonetheless they come back day after day to create a picture of our community in the most objective — and yet still personal — way possible.
Next to my community voice, I will miss them the most.
Unfortunately, no amount of realization now will save me from the inevitable goodbye. I am sorry for the future generations who will not get this unique opportunity, but am confident they will find their own life-molders.
In addition to that sympathy, I can’t forget the more important appreciation. No amount of words will ever equate my true gratitude, but they can make a dent.
First, to Jeff Garretson and Colleen Pohlig for dreaming up the program 10 years ago, to Sarah Jenkins for finally saying yes, and the Youth Editorial Alliance and Newspaper Association of America Foundation for recognizing our hard work countless times.
To the hundreds of teens that helped the program grow, and the community for not only listening to, but responding to our voices. To the teachers who shared our section with their classes and, most importantly, to Adriana Janovich, for heading up Unleashed for the past six years, for believing in us with such tremendous conviction, and for fighting so hard to keep the section alive. The longevity and success of Unleashed is largely a result of her undying support and enthusiasm.
Thank you, all of you, and I just have one last thing to ask: Please miss us.

— Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.