For a few days, there was something annoying me. Not just me, but the entire school. The UT Austin admissions office messed up big time with their early action decision roll out, and it was clearly affecting my senior classmates' mental health. I ached to have an outlet to express my concerns and disappoint, however deep inside, I was scared to say my thoughts aloud. My anxiety that I had long suppressed rose up during this, but I knew I couldn't just leave it like this. So, I mustered up the courage to talk to the magazine Editor-in-Chief at the time, Anisha Mandem, and she motivated me to stick up for myself and the students of Prosper High.

I love the freedom and power opinion pieces give me — it almost makes me feel invincible. In fact, my fondness of this type of writing shifted my focus from solely rolling out articles to protecting my team's editorial rights because I knew as we covered controversial issues, we would have to arm ourselves with the resources needed to shield what the First Amendment allows us to write on. In uncertain times like this where topics like politics and human rights are fragile, opinion articles are vital to help preserve our democracy and our opinions on the climate surrounding it. They're especially impactful to help spread awareness in the local community.

As seen in the screenshot above, this information is also for the public to know — we follow strict transparency in order to ensure trust and credibility within our opinion pieces.