To say the least, these last four years have been a wild ride.
Filled with laughs with my classmates, and even tears from my AP courses, high school was definitely way different than I thought it would be.
What haven’t I done throughout my last four years?
I was a starting midfielder for Cherokee’s varsity soccer team for freshman year.
I met some of my best friends in my sophomore year.
Oh, and I spent my junior and senior year in a worldwide historic pandemic.
But to be real, these last few years were not what I expected when I first walked into the main entrance of Cherokee on August 1, 2017.
That day was none other than my birthday, and I was celebrating it by starting at the county’s most populated school.
My underclassmen years were underwhelming, with most of my time being spent at soccer practices and studying for hours on end for my AP classes.
Then junior year hit.
My friend, Kayla, and I had decided to sign up for Cherokee’s elective class “Journalism: Yearbook.” On the first day, we walked into an unknown freshman literature teacher’s room with a big display on the board that read “Journalism: Newspaper”.
A cheery teacher welcomed us in, and told us all the fun we would have this year writing articles for our school’s online newspaper.
Of course, the thoughts running through my head consisted of “How do I get out of this class as fast as possible” and “when did Cherokee get a newspaper?”
Not wanting to change our schedules, Kayla and I decided to suck it up and push through the elective for the remainder of the year.
I published my first article August 21, 2019.
I was hooked.
Throughout my time in the class, I developed a new love for writing and realized what I could really do with a camera. With my newly developed article-writing abilities, my photography skills grew right with it.
The class I had once dreaded became my favorite class that I had ever taken, and I had met the best teacher that I’ve ever had, Ms. Teasley.
By March 2020, my second semester of junior year, Coronavirus had hit Georgia. Schools shut down for the rest of the year and life as we knew it had changed.
I think by now we all know how this story goes (I mean, we all lived it!). I came back to school, taking a second year of Journalism: Newspaper.
Not only did we gain a new and improved staff, we created a family.
Our small newspaper class turned into my favorite class of the day. I knew every seventh period was going to be filled with laughter and joy from not only our amazing teacher, but from the friends I made this year.
Overall, although this was not the senior year I had expected, I couldn’t have been given a better year. It has truly been a pleasure writing, photographing, and editing the articles for “The Warrior Word” these past two years.
Not only would I like to thank my wonderful newspaper family, but Ms. Teasley, who always had words of encouragement and always pushed me to work my hardest.
To Ms. T, you have truly been my favorite part of coming to school everyday and I want to thank you for always believing in me no matter what I did. Thank you for putting up with me for the last two years.
So thank you to Cherokee High School, for all the memories and friends I gained along the way. I wouldn’t trade my high school career for the world.
Signing off for the last time,
Alek Pace
Editor-in-Chief 2019-2021
THE WARRIOR WORD 