The original letter was published in the March 1, 2019 print issue of The Review. We changed it to reflect our last few months on The Review. Also, because we can.

Dear Reader,

With The Review Online’s growth over the past year, this is the perfect time to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the updated website. Between more multimedia content (including Pod on the Quad!) and more frequent stories and updates, The Review Online has been thriving. With our tenure as Editors-in-Chief now over, we want to reflect on our time with the website and all of the fond memories we’ve made on The Review. 

Sophia

One of my Dad’s favorite movies is “All the President’s Men,” so when I joined The Review sophomore year, my idea of working for a newspaper was based on nitty-gritty 1970’s investigative journalism (endlessly calling for quotes and editing with red pens). That, of course, was not the reality. I instead found myself writing a weekly column for Online and pitching video ideas. When Mr. Nathan approved my first video pitch, I started working with The Review’s video crew and discovered a brave new world: multimedia.

Junior year, I became an official member of the Online team and continued down the multimedia rabbit hole. I produced new video series (Special Music!) and created a podcast (Pod on the Quad!). I fully embraced the freedom of publishing content online — Hyperlinks! Photo galleries! Spotify playlists! Ask anyone on staff and they’ll tell you that I’m always asking for video and podcast ideas. Because those are the items that make Online a gem.

Ryan

As an online editor since sophomore year, I’ve also grown to appreciate the website’s ability to post breaking news and share stories that aren’t covered in the print newspaper. Just this year, The Review Online has informed the community of events like stolen laptops at Whataburger and students running the half marathon in Will McKone’s honor.

With graduation creeping ever closer, I have begun to appreciate the integral role The Review Online has played throughout my high school journey. As a freshman, I loved that I could proudly show off my first article (which has, unfortunately, been lost to the ravages of the Internet) to family around the world, from my aunt in Brazil to my grandparents in Taiwan. Since then, I’ve fallen in the love with the idea of sharing SJS stories with anyone and everyone, from the classmates and teachers I see everyday to alumni living in other parts of the nation and world.

Ryan and Sophia

The successes of the website this year largely hinge on our crazy Online family. The Section Editors do fantastic work, despite dedicating too much time to make memes. We ensure that we use the website to its full potential: a constant stream of multimedia content and timely, quality stories in various story layouts. We love working with the writers and videographers (shoutout to Jack, Alex and Thomas) that do the essential groundwork of creating the content, and did we mention that we especially love our Online Section Editors? We hope that Laney, Fareen and Sinclair enjoy working with us as much as we love working with them (even when we force them to publish multiple stories in one day). They’re the reason we look forward to A carrier every day, and we’re very sad that we can’t take their incredible scrapbook with us when we leave for college. We’re especially sad that we only had a few months to work with SJ, the newest member of the Online crew, but we know that she, Laney, Fareen, Sinclair, Megan and Ashley will do an incredible job next year.

Also, thanks to Senior Copy Editor Shani Israel for editing pretty much every written piece on this website. We really don’t know where The Review (online, print or otherwise) would be without her.

Perhaps most notably, however, this is the first year there have been two Online Editors-in-Chief. Having a partner to bounce ideas off of (and argue with) has been invaluable for both of us this year, and we’ve been able to plan the website’s most productive weeks and most ambitious projects together.* Though we’re both sad to say goodbye to the website, we’re so proud of our Online team and our collective accomplishments this year.

Love,

Ryan Chang and Sophia Kontos

*Note from Ryan: I’m not sure if we have a psychic link, but there was a time Sophia gave me a cookie I wanted without my saying a word. Also, when we were struggling to think of a headline for this LFE, she suggested the “family business” hook as an homage to the Online Family, without realizing that Kanye West’s “Family Business” is one of my favorite songs ever. Who knows?