ELAJEA: East Los Angeles Journalism Education Association

Every year, about ten high schools in the San Gabriel Valley area compete in journalism and yearbook competitions, including my high school. Categories range from News, News Layout, Yearbook Layout, Feature Photography, Critical Review, Editorial, and more. The top schools with the most points (and I believe it's in accordance with how many publication members per school place within the top in the competition) earn a trophy for Newspaper Sweepstakes and/or Yearbook Sweepstakes, and the overall winning school earns Super Sweepstakes.

My editor-in-chiefs decided about two weeks ago to place me the Editorial category, because I apparently seem like someone who "is able to write critically." If you were to ask anyone else, they'd probably tell you that my ability to write editorials comes from a bitch-ass opinionated motherfucker lol. Many of the other categories are able to take in multiple competitors per school, but with Editorial, only two competitors are allowed at most per school. Winning Editorial relied on me and Lauren, our News editor.

I'm not gonna lie, I barely prepared myself. I was so caught up with schoolwork and projects that I almost forgot. Because I was given the job to the write the editorial for our school newspaper this month, I decided to just work on the night before as my form of last-minute practice and preparation. Luckily, that happened to play out in my favor because the topic we were given for the competition felt so similar to the editorial I wrote for this month's paper. Yeaaaaah bitches.

After going out to eat, buying material for my adviser's farewell/retirement card, and going to the library during our three-hour break, it was finally awards time. We headed to the auditorium and I literally spent the entire time up until they began to announce the winners for Editorial slouching in my seat and telling myself I lost to save myself the feeling of disappointment

...Shit man. Our school did pretty amazing. We had publication members place top 10 in almost every category. I was literally getting out of my seat and screaming my ass off, to the point where I stood up and the entire room was spinning. When they began to call out the places for Editorial, I just shriveled up in my seat and was waiting for it to be over lol. And then... this happened:

Announcer: And for 6th place, from San Gabriel High School... Natalie Tran! My school:  WHOOO HFJEAHAHJL YHYEAHH Me: ..............huh

It's been about 8 hours. I'm still sitting here thinking "wait what." I beat out 16 other kids for 6th place. I just... what. And then Lauren, who was probably more worried than I was, ended up getting 1st place for editorial. FIRST PLACE. HOLY SHIT. THE EXCITEMENT RUNNING THROUGH MY BODY, YOU WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW.

Last year, our school took home Newspaper Sweepstakes, Yearbook Sweepstakes, and Super Sweepstakes. This year, we lost the Super Sweepstakes trophy to another school, but we got to bring back home Newspaper and Yearbook Sweepstakes. The best part about all of this though? Knowing we made our adviser proud. It's his very last year at our school as he is retiring this June. Having him as my sophomore English honors teacher pushed me to become a better writer, and that pushed me into joining journalism. Now I have my eyes set on possibly majoring in communications. I really don't know what I'd do without having my adviser for journalism. He's one of the few people I know who has told me to always take risks in my writing and never fall back from a stance. Having our school winning these awards was one thing, but making him proud of us was what was really worth it.