Editorial board answers the question: What did you learn this term, either specifically from your experience with TKS or the term in general?

• Sadie Cheney, Co-Editor-in-Chief:

  What a wild ride fall term has been. Coming into the school year, I didn’t know what to expect in the slightest—due to the never-ending changes with COVID. Carlos and I struggled to learn the ropes as editors-in-chief of TKS during a pandemic, while simultaneously having to reinvent TKS as we know it. More than anything, I’ve learned how to keep going. Carlos and I are co-EIC’s during a rough time, which forced us to learn most of our job while doing it. Unfortunately, this led to some serious failures on our end. Every single day I am learning a new skill in order to keep this paper going as usual. It has been exhausting, but I feel proud of where we are now. While I know that we have had to sacrifice stories due to limited writers and a lack of extra time, I’m confident in what we have published, and are continuing to work on in the coming terms. Fall term has been a whirlwind, and frankly, I’m excited to see what TKS will do next. We are continuing to grow daily. I hope the Knox Community recognizes our situation and is patient with our growth.

• Carlos Flores-Gaytan, Co-Editor-in-Chief:

  We went into this term knowing we were in a lot of unprecedented territory trying to keep the paper running while the school is dealing with avoiding the spread of COVID-19. That was the expected challenge of this term, and it certainly has made things harder for us as a publication. But this term felt more defined by the unexpected challenges, like suddenly having our entire website down and having to make sure a new one was created as fast as possible. Or, as we’ve discussed in other editorials, having to figure out how to respond once we realized we had made a significant mistake in our editorial process for columns. It can be the most stressful part of this job, knowing that problems are bound to pop up, but often having no idea when they will. But as challenging as it often is, it also shows why this paper has been one of the most effective learning experiences for us at Knox. We have to catch things as they’re thrown at us, and learn what it really means to be accountable as a newspaper.

• Sarah Eitel, Co-News Editor:

  This term, I’ve dedicated a lot of time to researching how I can make my work more respectful, ethical and inclusive. Inspired by activism both on and off campus, I’ve done a lot of introspective thinking about how my own practices may have hurt the community and how journalistic standards and ethics have become outdated. I’ve learned more about the ways that journalists tend to report with a focus on conflict, ignoring what may have led to it, and the way that conflict-orientation is in opposition with a peace-centered focus. I hope to continue this research over the break so that when classes start back up, I can continue my writing with a peace-centered approach and widen the range of what I report on to make sure the voices of everyone on campus are heard.

• Alicia Olejniczak, Co-News Editor:

  I think like many others, I had to learn to adapt. Whether or not I was successful with that is another issue. Many become respected in their field with how they responded to adversity and hardship; how they overcome and went above and beyond what was expected during great difficulty. I am not one of those people. Trying to go about schoolwork, a job and extracurriculars while listening to neverending news of rising infections felt daunting and oftentimes, unimportant. Several people I know had become sick within a very short amount of time, like the many other x-thousand amount of people who got sick in Illinois, but things continued on as usual. I tried to keep up on homework, tried to stay engaged, tried to stay motivated, but after a while it feels almost futile when we are trying to maintain normalcy for the sake of appearances. I have also learned that really anything is possible. This pandemic has shown that no matter what tragedy comes about, we will find a way to keep things running, whether or not that is considered a bad thing. It is admirable, but maybe a bit terrifying too. So above all else, I learned that educators are either my heroes or villains, and I commend them for staying motivated to teach when it seems like everyone else has lost their drive.

• Caroline Clink, Discourse Editor:

  The transition that I made this year from just writing articles to being an editor and the responsibilities that comes with that has been hard and there’s a lot of learning that I’ve had to do on the fly. I had no idea what to expect from this term and while at its roots TKS is still the same, almost everything has had to change coming into this year. I’ve tried my best to uphold the standards TKS has always had, but I know that I have not always succeeded at that. I came into this position with no preparation and every day I’m learning how I can do better and that’s something that I will stay committed to for the rest of the year.