Ashli Wagner
Video Editor
Seniors Ashli Wagner and Caroline Fellows pose on the columns in the Mizzou quad. Fellows and Wagner are continuing their education in journalism at Mizzou in the fall. Photo by Page Kimzey
I was asked the other day what was my favorite memory of the ECHO, and I couldn’t just pick one. How do you sum up four years you’ve dedicated your life to find one thing that you’ll miss the most? The answer is you can’t.
I have spent four years of my time at this high school in a room that doesn’t always have air conditioning and always smells like paper, working for the ECHO. Some of my greatest memories have come to be because of that class. I honestly can’t name them all, but I can name the best.
Before we get started, I have to say something- the ECHO is a newspaper, not a magazine, and it is definitely facts. The ECHO has been around for over 100 years.
I can remember walking into journalism that first day of freshman year and being so freaked out by our teacher with hair that looked better than mine ever will, and bigger. I sat down in the back with the only girl I recognized in the class and had no idea that for the next four years of my life, she would always sit next me and be my ECHO seat buddy for life.
Next thing I have to say, no matter what test you ever had or will have, it will never compare to the journalism ethics test. This is one of those tests that don’t have right answers. You just have to figure it out, so welcome to journalism.
Journalism people from two years ago will never know the frustration of arguing with parents about how taking money from your political boyfriend is very unethical.
My first year on ECHO, I sat in the same spot next to the same Caroline Fellows. We were trying to look like we knew what we were doing surrounded by people who actually knew what they were doing. She was trying to make a newscast that looked pretty rough, and I was trying to pretend like I knew how to be and manage all the ads. She’ll tell you that she knew how to make a video, but she is wrong. That year wasn’t too memorable. We didn’t do very much other than goof around and make videos with Page Kimzey laughing about how we should’ve gone to the bathroom before we started filming. Caroline and I always got halfway before we had to leave and go pee before we laughed it out of us. Caroline always would give us this look of how she wanted to kill us, but couldn’t, because we were too funny.
One of my favorite things we would do in the ECHO is go on field trips to different award ceremonies; the best one is in the spring at Mizzou.
Caroline and I always go together and take pictures with the same Thomas Jefferson statue across the quad from the columns. We always go to Noodle Co. for me and then go to Chipotle for her. I will never forget the first time I walked across that stage and heard Caroline yelling from the balcony.
The past three years on the ECHO have been going on trips to the basement bathroom, under the radar gossip, and petty actions that usually got us into some trouble, but I would never change a thing. Even though Caroline has probably told me to say “someone said” instead of “said someone” more than 1,000 times, and I’ve edited videos just for someone to unplug my computer and make me start again, the good times always beat out the bad, like when we spent four hours at Cole Schnell’s house writing about sexism over Chinese food, or when we got last place in trivia and thought it was the best thing in the world.
There are so many memories that I’ve made while on the ECHO staff that I will never forget, so I can’t pick a favorite.
What I do know is that next year, when I go to Mizzou, I’ll have my ECHO seat buddy right there with me to share all the laughs, as well as tears caused by more years under Bennett Durando.
I’m Ashli Wagner. Have a great year, and stay classy, Webster.
