Being a leader wasn’t something I was always fond of. I was the type of person to follow orders and if I was told to jump, I would say, “how high”? For the longest time I pursued a degree in STEM when I hated math and it wasn’t long ago that I realized that following what was set out for me was not going to make me happy. When I switched to Journalism, it felt like for once I was finally deciding what I wanted to do mattered more than what others expected of me, and it was both terrifying and eye opening.

I was absolutely nervous, but I worked on skills that I knew needed work and pushed on. When I saw articles featuring my name, I felt proud of what I accomplished. Despite all that, there was still a part of me that was still unsure of what I wanted to do. I felt like maybe I wasn’t cut out for interviewing people or covering events and it slowly grew over my time with the newspaper.

When it came time to elect a new Editor-In-Chief, our advisor Cindy McGrath wanted me to give it a go. I hesitated to apply and tried to set someone else up for the position. But with some words of encouragement from McGrath, I decided to go against my own judgments and take over for the newspaper.

It’s a little daunting having these new responsibilities and it doesn’t help that my self doubt still holds me back from making quick decisions. However, being given these responsibilities is giving me the chance to come face to face with my own insecurities. Like our previous Editor-In-Chief, I will work hard to meet the expectations that are set. Even if I set them high myself. 

My goal is to not only overcome my hesitance, but to ensure that the Los Medanos College newspaper, The Experience, runs smoothly in the hands of the new staff. Just the first few days of the semester has shown me that the new staff is not only motivated to work hard for the paper, but are very talented in their abilities to write and find stories. Even though they have already proven their skills, I still want to be able to lend them my support in any way possible. 

There’s going to be issues that we will run into no doubt about it. Although, I know that we’ll make it no matter what. My previous time as a staff writer during the last year of COVID has shown that no obstacle can stop the press.

 I hope that those who are reading this look forward to what we can do as journalists. On behalf of the LMC Experience staff, we wish you all a great semester!