Before I leave to venture into the real world, I must give some thanks to a few fantastic people. Firstly, I’d like to thank the various teachers who have endured my relentless Josh-ness and have been able to maintain their sanity. I know I can be a bit eccentric and often times disruptive, but hey, that’s me for you.

I started Horizon Honors at the beginning of the second semester of eighth grade, and I must say my experience certainly improved as time went on. When I first started here I really didn’t think that it would get better. After a while I took to a group of people. Little did I know that they were bad influences, and that they would be the best friends I’d ever have.  Luis Quintanilla, Stephanie Holland, Jordan Martinez, Steven Villarreal, Javier Carrazco, Jon Foote, Gabe Preciado, and Elizabeth Tso made me feel like I belonged, and together, we were all just stupid kids with stupid kid ideas. They really made me think that things wouldn’t be so bad after all.

It wasn’t until my Junior year that I really found out what I wanted to make of myself in this world. I wanted to make music with my best friends. I loved music and I loved my friends even more, so I knew I could never give up and lose sight of the dream. To this day we’re still working on making our presence known in Arizona.

It also wasn’t until my Junior year that I would meet someone who would make a huge difference in my life, my junior English teacher, Mrs. Britt. When I started my junior year, I never thought I would leave that classroom on the last day of my junior year as changed as I was. I went in as a closed off, barely emotionally responsive kid who used humor as a defense mechanism. I left as a changed individual, I learned the value of words (I’m still learning that actually) and what it means to put your thoughts and feelings on paper. She may as well have dissected every deep and dark corner of my brain for me to write what I wrote. It was beautiful and renewing for me. Writing outside of class became therapeutic, and expressing feelings through the wondrous and fluid art of words was something new to me.

Towards the end of the year the unthinkable happened; Mrs. Britt invited me to join her Journalism class for my senior year. Initially I was quite surprised considering I didn’t really do so well in her English class, but I came to find out I was just wacky enough to fit into Journalism. When I started Journalism, I didn’t think that I would get along with any of the other people in the class, but as time went on I came to find out that getting along didn’t matter. These people were just kooky as I was, some even more than me.

Taking Journalism was hands down one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my young life.