The Winged Post is a lot like a sandwich from Ike’s: It’s really too much for one person to handle, but we ignore common sense and bite off way more than we can chew. It’s messy, and even when you try to keep it compartmentalized to your mouth, it gets everywhere until your entire life is tinged with it. And yet, we keep going back to Ike’s. Why? Because it’s so delicious that it’s worth it. Just like journalism.

It takes an army to produce every volume of the Winged Post, and we were very lucky to have so much support during our four year journey. First, to our staff: thank you for your efforts to keep this ship afloat and for putting the time in to make this paper beautiful; we wish you the best of luck in the future. Next, we’d like to thank those who came before us in Winged Post history and created the powerful foundation that we built upon this year. Thank you to our fellow journalists on other Harker publications for stepping in to help and support us whenever necessary; we’ve loved being part of this giant journalism family.

A huge thank you to the Mr. Keller and the rest of the administration for supporting us in publishing at our own journalistic discretion. This paper wouldn’t be here without you standing behind us. And to every teacher either of us has ever had: thank you for dealing with our many late-passes and extension requests. We’re sorry.

Thank you the people who have supported us behind the scenes since before we were born: our parents. We can’t give you back the aggregate days of your life you’ve spent waiting in the Harker parking lot while we send the paper two hours later than expected, but we can give you a shout-out in this column.

No one deserves a thank you more than the two other members of this strategic team: Sahana and Ms. Austin. For the amount of time you’ve spent with us this year, you’ve earned the rights to our first-born children and keynote speeches at our weddings. We look forward to seeing where you will take the Winged Post next year.

And finally, last but definitely not least, a huge thank you to you, our readers. You gave us purpose, even when you only read the abs for laguna article.

If we’ve learned anything from these four years, it’s this: we may never have Ike’s at a Harker deadline night again, but we’ll keep eating these sandwiches and pursuing journalism for the rest of our lives. Our hunger for the journalistic truth is insatiable.

This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on May 11, 2017.