Junior year of high school, I got diagnosed with Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome, so I left for four weeks at the very end of school for a rehab program so I wasn’t in pain all of the time.

For most, this might be the main event on this page, but thankfully it’s the start of one of the best years of my life.

I didn’t get comfortable in high school until my senior year, partially because I didn’t have anything to lose and partially because I was no longer in constant pain, but I also was comfortable in my friends, in my hobbies and in my skin.

Senior year, I became Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper. I was very scared for this, but being in newspaper and now running it, has been one of the highlights of high school, learning how to write stories, interview, hear different people’s perspectives and meet new people I’d never have met otherwise.

The main thing I’ve learned is you really don’t have to be scared — you will get the information you need when you need it, and being scared doesn’t do anything. If anything, it keeps you from living.

You can’t take a final at the start of a class in the same way you can’t know everything immediately. I was terrified to go to rehab for my pain — I didn’t know how any of it would work; however, I learned what I needed to know when I needed to, and I haven’t had chronic pain for a year. I figured it out when I needed to.

I learned what I needed to know to run a newspaper class when I needed to. Stressing about it all summer did nothing to help. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in high school is that you aren’t the first person to do anything, even if you think you are.

Someone else has done it, and you should take comfort in that. No matter if you know it or not, you are following in someone’s footsteps, and you will get the information you need when you need it.

I am not the first person to ever have Amplified Pain or to go to rehab during the school year or lead a newspaper class. People have done these things before.

Taking refuge in the fact that someone else has done this and was as scared as you are now has been incredibly helpful for me.

Newspaper has taught me a lot. It’s taught me patience, to hear people’s stories, to listen and to appreciate the time you have while you have it.

Room 518 has become my favorite place in the school — it’s where I’ve gotten to learn and hear other perspectives.

Thank you, newspaper, for giving me friends, letting me hear others’ stories and learning how to be OK not knowing everything at once. So as I’ve said since sophomore year, “Thank you, Huss. Thank you, Editors. Thank you, Newspaper.”