When senior Avery Reid made the switch to the high school from the junior high, she made the decision to stop taking the newspaper elective. Now as a senior, she is back on the newspaper staff, not writing, but promoting the Mountain Echo. 

Reid has been around writing almost all of her life because of her father’s occupation, so she felt that it was only fitting that she had come back to the staff because it was her senior year of high school.

“I felt like I wasn’t finished, and in my ninth grade year I enjoyed it, but I wanted to try other electives. And then this year I was like ‘well why not’ because it’s my last year and there’s only so many electives you can do. My schedule’s kind of tough to fit everything in, so I just decided to do it again,” Reid said. 

Reid first realized in her eighth grade year that she wanted to be a writer. She took writing classes, and she expresses how well she does in her English classes.

“I figured it out in eighth grade when picking electives, this was so long ago I was literally 14 years old, but my dad is actually a writer, and I thought it would be cool. I love writing, my favorite subject is English, so I was like ‘why not’, and then I did really well my ninth grade year. So that’s when I really started to find out I really liked writing, even though I don’t write now for the newspaper, I still miss it though,” Reid said. 

Upon return, Reid had to choose what position on the Mountain Echo she wanted to fill. She could have been a writer again or try being an editor, but she made the decision to get practice for what she will be doing after high school.

“So, I’m actually different from everyone else. I’m going to a school next year for marketing, like business, so she [newspaper adviser Wanda Vanish] wanted me to be part of the marketing aspect. So I’m emailing [communications director] Paula Foreman and sending her new stories weekly, I actually have to do one today. And then there’s a trunk-or-treat, and we’re working on business cards to put out for us.  We’re doing all of that kind of stuff. So I’m not really the writing aspect, more of the promoting aspect,” Reid said.

When it comes to her biggest influence on her writing career, it is her family and the newspaper staff. 

“My dad is probably my influencer. He writes for Fighters Only, so he’s kind of encouraging me to write, but probably also Mrs. Vanish just because she was my ninth grade teacher, and she’s the one that made me want to come back. So both people for sure,” Reid said.

Reid has tips for anyone who wants to become a writer or a better writer.

“Probably just start writing. I take an elective actually, creative writing, so maybe something like that or just start asking your English teacher. I know Mr. Clouser, my eighth grade teacher, was the one who got me into it too. So future writers could just try to talk to their English teachers and get into the electives that are of writing,” Reid said.

As Reid reflects on her ninth grade year of being part of the staff, she sees how much the classes have grown and how much notice the Mountain Echo has gotten since she started.“It makes me excited seeing new things on Mountain Echo and on our social media platforms because we want to get more people to see it. This year our class is so big, I remember in ninth grade when I came there was just five or six of us and now it’s a whole class which makes me so excited because we actually do so many great things. I run the Twitter account, so I see how many likes everything gets. I’m like ‘oh my gosh people actually care, people actually care about the newspaper.’ So it’s just exciting to see how many people actually notice us now compared to back then,” Reid said.

Even though Reid enjoys writing and promoting new news stories, she doesn’t plan on pursuing it after her high school career. According to Reid, she has different plans for her future, but if the chance came up, she would take it.