To whom it may concern:

I’m graduating and won’t be the editor of the Chipper next year.

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been on the Chipper since I was a sophomore, and I was made editor by default my junior year when I became the only returning member; all the other members were seniors and graduated. That year, there were four members of the Chipper: myself, Morgan North, Declan Henson, and Ryan McCrary; we made videos in Mr. Putnam’s class waiting for this year so we could make Chipper a class again. Being the returning member and having a long family history at CHS, I wanted to see the paper return to it’s former glory. I put in a lot of work toward recruiting, I had meetings with Mrs. Tierce over how to best reintroduce the Chipper, and I put in a lot of work toward organizing the Chipper into what it is today. To say that the current Chipper is made of my blood, sweat, and tears would be pretty accurate.

And that’s why writing this last article is so bittersweet. I was the only one that held onto the Chipper when no one else seemed to care and it’s tough to let go. I vividly remember asking Mrs. Spradley at the end of my sophomore year who all had applied to the Chipper, to which she replied, “No one applied. And everyone else is graduating. You ARE The Chipper.” Obviously I felt a sense of responsibility to carry on what is now an 81 year legacy, but more importantly, I stuck with the Chipper because I wanted to. I had a passion, and after spending all year writing articles that no one read, I vowed that I would make the Chipper a publication that students knew about and wanted to read.

My vision for the Chipper was an organization by the students, for the students, and I feel that we’ve achieved that for the most part, and I honestly couldn’t be prouder of the staff and the paper. We published over 200 articles this year! Guess how many articles the Chipper published last year! Zero! That’s progress and I’m proud of it.

In my original application to the Chipper, I wrote, “I always feel like I’m running out of time; there aren’t enough years in my life to do what I want to do.” Some things never change. Even though I graduate in a week, I feel like my time with the Chipper isn’t quite up yet. There’s a lot that I still want to do with the paper and I feel that it still hasn’t quite reached it’s true potential, but I suppose I’m happy with where I’m leaving it because it has a lot of time to grow from here.

Part of the reason I can be content leaving the Chipper is because I know it’s in good hands. I look around at all the capable people I’m surrounded by, people who are passionate about writing and keeping the Chipper alive, and I can tell that the Chipper will be just fine.

I’d like to extend a special thanks to Mr. Scott Barkley, who’s been there every step of the way as a guide and mentor, Mrs. Candela, who took on the responsibility of The Chipper even though this is her first year at the school, Mrs. Tierce, who helped the Chipper become a class again, Mr. Putnam, for hosting the Chipper when we were just a small group in his video class, and Mrs. Spradley, for letting me be a part of all this in the first place. Without them the paper wouldn’t be here today and none of this would have been possible.

Signing off as editor for the last time,

Will Archer