From Introvert to Founder Anonymous

“Welcome to Newspaper! I’m passing the sign in sheet around.” A bustling classroom of half familiar faces stood before me. Posters of hunter gatherer societies and Mesopotamian Civilization were plastered to the walls. I fiddled with an Expo marker. Months of running around had led me here. Writing was my religion and now I was a minor messiah. An introvert who had been bombarded with demands to “Speak louder!” her entire life, standing in front of a crowded room.

I first imagined the Newspaper Club to the background noise of 1984 audiobooks with Simon Prebble droning on about “Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism.” A dystopian world unfolded before me as did hidden truths. “Guys, I’m gonna start a school newspaper!”Guffaws of laughter rang through the lunch table. The blatant disregard for the fine arts quieted me, I silently duct taped my paper advertisements to the school hallways. I thought in doublethink. Why were athletics placed on a pedestal and not the less visual arts? Yes, it takes as much genius to pass a ball in a strategic sequence to win games as it takes to string together a calculated set of metaphors to create a poem, but it is regressive for a society to hone one talent while stifling the other.

...