The Spirit Throughout the Years

The Spirit has been part of SFS for more than 50 years. Throughout those years, it has gone through many changes, produced thousands of articles, and taught invaluable lessons to countless students and alumni. The history of The Spirit is a part of its prestige now, but what was it like throughout the years? What do the previous editors-in-chief (EICs) remember about The Spirit and what lessons have carried on with them in their post-high school life? Yeuen Kim (class of 1988), an EIC of The Spirit and currently part of the clinical faculty in medicine at Stanford University, and Kyungen Kim (class of 1990), also an EIC of The Spirit and now the Creative Director at Shinsegae, reflected back on their high school years with The Spirit. 

The Spirit’s Pre-Technology Days 

Before the days of the internet, the computer, and Adobe InDesign, The Spirit’s newspapers were made mostly by hand. “It was a big deal that we didn’t hand-write and could type on our electric typewriters,” Kyungen said. “There was one huge sheet that would get folded in half and you had to be really smart about what was upside down, back, and forward. That took half my brain cells.” 

Making a Difference 

Laying out everything by hand meant staying up all night to put together the issue with the other staff members. “As a student, I enjoyed being a part of a team and feeling like I made a difference at the school through writing. I thought we were making a difference by using my writing skills to have conversations at the school that were important or being able to ask tough questions at the school,” Yeuen said. Kyungen similarly reflected on her experience as the EIC, trying to be considerate of the multiple perspectives on certain issues. “The goal was always to be the student voice,” she said. For Kyungen, her proudest moment of being part of The Spirit was the creative writing section. “As SFS gets bigger, it’s harder to be seen and heard, and writing is an outlet for unexpected people. It’s a huge confidence thing for kids to encourage writing in that way,” she said. 

The Spirit Post-High School Life

Both Yeuen and Kyungen agreed that the writing skills they gained from The Spirit still benefits them to this day. “If you can write well, it makes a huge difference. How you communicate is important for any profession and it can boost your career,” Yeuen said. Similarly, Kyungen learned the importance of not only writing, but also the process of editing, managing people, and problem solving in The Spirit. “The importance of writing began with The Spirit and that’s a life skill that I use every day: the ability to think to write clearly, figuring out ‘what am I trying to say and what is the point, do I have actual substance to back it up?’” Even after more than three decades, Kyungen says that “having to run a paper was one of the biggest things that made me grow.” 

More recently, even in a few years, The Spirit went through a monumental change, transitioning from a newspaper to a news magazine in 2021. Past EICs Christine Lee (class of 2020), who graduated from UPenn this past December, and Lynn Lee (class of 2021), who is a senior at Yale University, revisited their high school experiences with The Spirit. 

COVID-19 Disruptions

Christine and Lynn both ran into the trouble of managing The Spirit during the hectic times of the COVID-19 pandemic. “In the beginning, everything was on hold because we expected to go back to school pretty fast. Obviously, that didn’t happen for a while, and it was hard to chase down writers because we didn’t have in-person meetings,” Christine said. Despite the obvious challenges of the pandemic, it kick-started the development of The Spirit’s digital presence into motion. “We got into issuu.com and uploaded all of our newspapers to the site,” Lynn said. By publishing articles online on the website and utilizing Instagram, The Spirit was able to grow despite the challenges. 

Making History

The Spirit that exists now is a culmination of the hard work and dedication of the past editorial board and staff. The Featuring Arts page that is present in every single issue these past few years was created by Christine in 2019. “There are amazing artists in the SFS community and I thought it would be a good idea to include that as part of our newspaper,” she said. 

The Spirit Post-High School Life

The Spirit’s lessons and valuable skills have carried on with Christine and Lynn after high school, like Yeuen and Kyungen. “The Spirit taught me that perfection is impossible when it comes to journalism and change takes a lot of time. Instead of scrutinizing details of other people’s work, it’s valuable to take a step back and look at the macro pictures,” Lynn said. Similarly, Christine reflected on her initial reach for perfection. “Having out-of-touch goals really makes it difficult to create anything that you’re happy with and that’s something I had to learn while I was EIC,” she said. “It’s hard to have an opportunity like this in high school where you’re expected to lead a big team of students and create things quickly, getting tangible results and feedback immediately,” Christine said. 

Even after graduation, the memories and lessons learned from The Spirit and high school will carry on with you to your post-high school life. As the common saying goes, once a crusader, always a crusader, and once a part of The Spirit, always part of The Spirit!