When I entered the Media Arts class as a sophomore, I quickly found a passion for journalism. I knew almost immediately that I wanted to edit for one of our publications and could hardly wait for applications to open. When I finally applied, I did not specifically request to be a magazine editor, wanting to leave my options open for new opportunities. Graphic design had interested me before — I was on the yearbook staff in middle school — but I hadn’t thought a lot about pursuing it further or connecting it to my journalistic work. 
When I found out I would be editing for the Highlander, I was excited but nervous. I was grateful for the position but didn’t know how much work came with the magazine, since sophomores did not work on it. My training brought new questions every day: How do I download InDesign? How does Photoshop work? What is a maestro?
It was more complicated than just editing a few articles for grammar and AP style mistakes and hitting a button labeled “publish.” No matter how many times my peer mentors tried to explain the editing process, I couldn’t fully wrap my head around it. 
I finally connected the dots when we began work on our second issue of the Highlander. I was sitting in front of my computer, Photoshop open and InDesign minimized, trying to find the eraser tool. It was beginning to stress me out; how could such a small button be so difficult to find? And yet, it was somewhat comforting. Design work had never felt like a chore, but up until then, something had felt missing. At that moment, something clicked, and I knew I was meant to be doing this.
As I familiarized myself with the Adobe suite and continued working on the issue, I found that I became more comfortable with graphic design. Veering away from the writers’ plans was a daunting task, but I slowly began to take more creative liberty with spreads. Rather than following my writers’ plans word for word, I relied more on my own judgment to decide what looked good and, more importantly, what did not. When I submitted my final draft for that issue, I had not only successfully figured out InDesign and Photoshop but also designed several spreads on my own. 
In our final issue of the year, I was the sole designer for nearly all of the spreads I edited. I had grown confident enough in my work to quickly and efficiently produce well-designed spreads that needed only minor tweaks before going to print. There were a few hiccups, mainly due to my aversion to white space, which I worked with our editor-in-chief to fix. I learned more about good layout and placement as a result. I admit that some spreads were not of their best quality when I submitted them for our first peer review. However, I had learned a lot about graphic design and improved significantly in my abilities since my first editing assignment. As I enter my senior year, I hope that I can continue to improve upon my skills as I edit for new sections and apply my passion for graphic design to my journalism.