As I leave high school, there were always a certain few phrases I would hear a lot from friends, family and classmates that surrounded me most of my time in high school… “how do you do it all?” Granted, I did a lot for band and the newspaper, competed in UIL Journalism and UIL Essay, wore fashionable-ish clothes, and so much more. But the more I got that question, the more I had to sit down and think, “how did I do so much?” When I asked myself that, I found an answer — I don’t do it all, I do as much as I can.

Stepping out my comfort zone

The summer before my freshman year started, my mom sat me down and told me that I wasn’t allowed to wear hoodies or tights anymore. She wanted me to dress in a way that presented the person I wanted to be.

I never cared much about fashion and it was never something I thought about, so having to plan my outfit scared me. This often comes as a shock to people I’ve talked to today since fashion is what I live for, and everywhere I go I dress up. Getting to where I am now with fashion to where I was before took a big step in me getting out of my comfort zone. I learned the value of trying something new, as I begrudgingly dragged myself through freshman year in new clothes. Eventually, I started to like it, and it became one of the things I sought comfort in through a really hard marching band season.

Finding harmony in band

Marching band was the same story. At the start, I used to dislike my section, and I had a really hard time talking to my other band mates because I didn’t feel as comfortable as the others. During marching season, I am a part of the front ensemble. While we don’t move for the entire show, it requires rigorous physical and mental endurance to keep track of notes and time, especially now as a senior with a writer who is a percussionist like me. At the beginning, I didn’t know what scales were, how to hold mallets, or how to even count, but I taught myself and learned from others. Thanks to my private lesson teachers, (and a few screams from my old percussion teacher), I learned almost every scale within a year, and I started to love being in percussion and band. Now as a senior I get to help my own section and other percussionists with my instrument and teach them things I didn’t get to make the process even better. I still struggle from time to time, but I know that I have a love of playing music and doing what I can do now from what I couldn’t do back then makes everything I do worth the extra push.

A step towards journalism

Towards the end of my sophomore year I had the amazing chance to win second place in the county’s Mockingbird poetry competition, in which I met 2025’s Editor-in-Chief, Sofia Ayala, who took me to room 1148 and I absolutely fell in love. Newspaper, I hate to say, was something I never imagined joining. I was super shy — I didn’t talk very much, and the thought of talking to other people to ask them questions was absolutely terrifying. But I went in the room and I just knew I wanted to ask if I could join, but obviously I was too scared to ask until my advisor, Mrs. Roskens, asked if I wanted to join. Junior year was my first year on the team, and I was in a place where I was the only junior in the class and I was still shy, until I got my first assignment to cover the Westlake game with another person who was in band and in newspaper, Will Ligon. I, honestly, had no idea what I was doing — the stadium was huge, and I’ve only been on the field to play, not to take photos of people. But, Will told me a lesson I still use when I got to take photos or to report, “be confident and just take photos,” and I’m proud to say those were some of the best photos I’ve ever taken sports-wise in my opinion without having to use edits. Now, I cover everything, and of course Mrs. Roskens has to even tell me to take a break. But I’ve honestly found something I’m so passionate about that it’s hard to take breaks when you really love doing something. From this class, I’ve learned to ask questions, speak up for myself, and of course how to talk to people, and from there, I also learned how to write and even did competitions for UIL Journalism, the headline competitions being my favorite.

So… what?

Senior year, if you can imagine, I worked like I had a job. I balanced band, newspaper, UIL journalism, clubs, PCIS and so much more. I think if someone asked what I did all day, I’d say school, but it’s only because I really love my extracurriculars — they’re the thing that keeps me busy. What I learned from my time in all of these things is to try everything, at least once and if you like it, keep doing it, if not then at least you can say you tried. Don’t hold your own self back because you don’t want to, but you never know where those opportunities lead. Of course I couldn’t do anything without my staff for the last two years for their encouragement, Ethan for being an amazing Co-Host for Sound Spectrum, and Grace and Emily for making my class experience so fun every B-Day. My family, for having my back through everything these past four years, my best friends Jordan, Nick, Davina, Kaylin, Aaliyah, Camryn and so many of my other friends who always knew I had something going on and supported me anyways. My teachers, even if their work did stress me out. My band directors, for fueling my passion for music, and my advisor Mrs. Roskens for believing that a poet could write articles. That’s what made everything worth doing and doing it all made me enjoy the stress and the overload, because doing what I can makes me happy to experience it.

For the last time, I’m your host and social media director signing off,

Victoria Byers

This article was edited by Johnathan Tristan, Kate Duncan, and Ethan Chatelain.