By Kai Bwor and Samantha Posa

For the past two years, coming into A11 every day, we knew that we’d eventually have to write our goodbyes. But like the idea of summer vacation in September or graduation your first day of freshman year, it always felt impossibly far away.

As the 2025–2026 Editors-in-Chief, we began the year hoping it would be “smooth sailing,” which is really just another way of saying uneventful. Looking back now, we can confidently say it was anything but smooth, and yet, somehow, it was absolutely perfect. Like Goldilocks and her bowl of porridge, it was just right.

Whether we were crossing off middle fingers on the front page from the February issue, or finding out that Granadapalooza had been canceled after the publisher already had our front page, every moment brought us closer together. Those chaotic behind the scenes experiences, shared with our staff, editors, writers, and advisor, are the ones we will carry with us long after this year ends.

Of course, not everything was unexpected. We also made intentional changes to strengthen our paper. This year, we worked hard to develop issues that offered the perfect balance between covering the lighter aspects of Granada Hills Charter (GHC) while also bringing attention to the events changing our world today socially and politically. From diving into teacher friendships to covering our student body’s moving response to the Immigrations Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raids that have affected our country, we hope that our stories reflected the dichotomous nature of journalism, both heartfelt and hard hitting.

To better connect with our readers, yes, YOU, we added headshots to each article to put a face to the name, experimented more with the layout in the feature section (forever grateful to our lovely feature editor, Chloe Hsieh), and strived to highlight a wider range of our student body on our cover (shout-out to our news and front-page editor, Kamilah Snyder!)

It is imperative to say that none of these improvements could have been done without the rest of our team. Thank you to our advisor, Melissa Spaulding, who greeted us every day with a welcoming smile and a warmth that made A11 feel like more than just a newspaper team. From listening to her read children’s books for weeks every Friday, to creating a space where everyone feels comfortable with each other, she helps create the classroom, home of GHC’s newspaper, that made all of this possible. 

To our staff writers, thank you for all of your effort in producing amazing works, both articles and photos alike. We’ve watched you all grow beautifully as writers over the year, from witnessing many of you take your first steps in journalism to all of you taking full pride and initiative in producing your articles. To our editors, your endless creativity in designing the newspaper’s pages truly makes up the beauty of our issues. 

Beyond your roles as writers and editors and ours as your Editors-in-Chief, we’ve had the pleasure of experiencing this year beside you all as your classmates and friends. Whether we were doing Just Dance in class or clowning around, talking about someone’s crush while correcting the printed version of the paper, or snacking on each other’s bakes (Sarah Amador’s cake pops!), each and every Plaid Press issue curated by us was never just about the final product.  Each edition was more than just a newspaper to read, but a physical representation of our teamwork, friendship, and camaraderie. 

It has been a year of unforgettable chaos, and we truly could not have asked for a better way to end this journey.