Today, the New Trier News’s 99th year comes to an end– a year’s worth of news that’s comprised of your Science Olympiad triumphs and field hockey defeats, your letters to the editors and perspectives on potential technology bans.

On this day, the Class of 2019 bid goodbye and prepare to join the generations of alum who’ve passed through the school doors for last time and into the uncertain future. And as we prepare for graduation, the junior class prepares to step into our shoes, the sophomores into the juniors’, and the freshman into the sophomores’.

As NT News editors, we’ve spent our years here writing pieces, questioning norms, scrutinizing data, and begging for quotes from anyone who would talk to us. To all the students who make up this institution, we hope to pass on this sentiment in light of everything we’ve observed through the years: the news is yours.

Everything that’s reflected back to us in the news– the breaking stories, the features, the opinions and sports– is part of the world we will soon inherit. And with it, we inherit the responsibility of doing our best to extrapolate justice in this world wherever we can in whatever capacity we possess.

Next year, NT News’ 100th year will begin again, rejuvenated by new energy. To the student body who will be here when we leave: make the 100th year a good one. At the end of the day, when it’s your turn , your experience at this place will be defined by the way you embrace what this place has to offer. Likewise, to the rest of our class of graduating seniors, let’s make our world a good place to live in.

If there is anything the news can teach you it’s that you can’t understand or analyze or make judgements about anything until you’ve first observed and described it. Pay attention to what goes on around you. Observe. Question. Reflect. Discuss. It is up to us to observe and reflect on our environment, because that it the way we can improve upon it.

And beyond this, there is a greater amount of contentment and meaning to be found in living “impressionably,” as Emerson put it in an essay that many of us should have paid more attention to in our junior year English classes called “Fate.”

“The great man, that is, the man most imbued with the spirit of the time, is the impressionable man,” he wrote.

What this means is that our lives are enriched when we live in thoughtful examination of the world around us, sensitive to the details and the skeptical of its implications. Whether our next year is at NT or beyond its walls, it’s up to us to observe and question the world around us. The news is yours.