As a young girl, senior Jessie Warren would spend hours wandering the woods in her backyard, losing herself in the deepest corners of her brain. There, she would recount elaborate stories out loud for the wildlife surrounding her to hear. Every word that she spoke was tainted with the purity of childhood creativity, and for Jessie, that creativity stemmed from her adoration to tell stories.

“I think I’m an imaginative person,” Jessie said. “I am [also] an anxious person by nature. I have had a lot of feelings ever since I was really little. I think that a lot of the time, the inside of my mind can be kind of chaotic just in the sense that everything feels like it’s floating, and it doesn’t feel like there’s ground—it feels like my mind is the sky. Writing has helped me a lot with that because it has given me a ground; I have a place to put the thoughts.”

Now, standing on the edge of eighteen, Jessie is a staff member on The Central Trend as the Print Managing Editor. After signing up for the Writing for Publication course to take her junior year, Jessie has gotten closer to her best friends and even met new ones that she views as irreplaceable.

Though she did not sign up for the class until her junior year, Writing for Publication was constantly in the back of her mind beginning in the eighth grade, when she was selecting her courses for her first year of high school. What held her back then was the fact that she had yet to view herself as the typical journalist. 

However, she had begun to find herself gradually learning more about the news site, first by being interviewed by former Editor in Chief Abby Wright for a profile her freshman year.

“I think looking back on it,” Jessie said, “that it’s kind of funny because it was Abby, and now I know Abby, and I’m best friends with [alumna] Lynlee [Derrick]. It’s strange, but [that was] kind of when I started to figure out whether or not I wanted to join [The Central Trend].”

It was around this time in her sophomore year that the puzzle pieces to Jessie’s life at FHC finally began to fit together. As a sophomore, she became friends with one of the current Editors in Chief, Natalie Mix, while also getting closer with staff writer senior Kelsey Dantuma. They would talk Jessie’s ear off about the wonderful family that resided within the walls of Room 139, a room she would find herself becoming extremely familiar with in the coming years. 

Eventually, after hearing every positive aspect of the class that Kelsey and Natalie could think of, Jessie finally took the leap and signed up for Writing for Publication.

“I think that knowing [Nat and Kelsey] and being friends with them really convinced me that there was a place for me on The Central Trend, even if I was joining later on in my high school career,” Jessie said. “I remember really wanting to be a part of it, even from the moment that I wrote it down on my [course request form], I was like, ‘I want to be a part of this.’ And now I love writing for The Central Trend. It’s so much fun, and the amount that I’ve grown while I’ve been on The Central Trend has been really neat. I used to hate interviewing, and now I’m okay with it. I have a lot of friends that I really love, and it’s a good place to be. It’s a great way to express yourself and to put yourself out there because I would not talk to half the people that I do if it weren’t for having to interview them for something or being in a class with them.”

Though her friends were an imperative factor in her decision to join the class, her Honors English 10 teacher, Ken George, was another very important reason in her choice. Since he also teaches Writing for Publication, Jessie saw this as the perfect opportunity to spend another year with one of her favorite teachers.

She wasn’t originally on the path to take Honors English, however, her English 9 teacher, Robbin DeMeester, thoroughly suggested that she did so. And after pushing through the tough summer-read of Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Jessie became fully devoted to the class. She could see the pure, unadulterated passion that George had for teaching this class, and it made learning pieces of classic literature that much more riveting. Jessie would even go so far as to say that it was the first time that she “ever fully immersed herself in a class and fell absolutely head over heels in love with it.”

Though Jessie has always been an avid storyteller and lover of words, taking Honors English 10 furthered this passion, and she is even seriously considering becoming a high school English teacher solely because of it.

“I love [all] my classes, but I went to Walden Pond, and I bought a shirt,” said Jessie as she stifled a laugh. “I was just obsessed with Honors English 10, and I loved the classics and I loved transcendentalism. I think it really helped set the groundwork for a lot of the reasons I love literature now, because I love poetry, and I don’t think I would love poetry as much as I do without that.”

The combination of her wonderful friends, her adoration for literature, and to be with one of her favorite teachers gave Jessie the perfect amount of incentive to make one of the best decisions during her time in high school. Over the past two years, she has formed unbreakable bonds with people she would have never imagined becoming friends with, and she has created timeless memories that will live in the back of her mind forever. Furthermore, she has written beautiful pieces that entice her readers after the first sentence.

But alas, the time to say her goodbyes is creeping up quicker than she anticipated.

Jessie will miss almost every aspect about her time on The Central Trend. However, one part will hurt so much more to leave: the people. 

“Seeing someone every day is a big deal, and it’s a lot bigger of a deal than we make it out to be,” Jessie explained. “Even the days that I’m gone, I miss seeing the people because I love them so much. And because even if we’re not friends, it feels like we’re all focused on one task and one goal. That’s really important, and it brings people closer together.”

Jessie believes that she is who she is because she writes. She has grown to be a more eloquent woman who knows more of what she wants to happen in her future. And the best part is that she has The Central Trend to document her consummate growth towards who she is today.

“I don’t think that my freshman year self necessarily saw any of this coming,” Jessie said. “And even if she did, I don’t think that she would hate the person that I’ve become. And I think that’s an accomplishment. Being on The Central Trend, and having that place to share my words with people has taught me that my words, who I am, my stamina, and my countenance all have an impact on the people around me, and that it is incredibly important for me to not only recognize that, but to make sure that I do the most with what I have and allow other people to look up to me [as much as] I look up to them.”