Entering her second year as a writer for The Downey Legend, senior Esther Rodriguez has high hopes. As a sophomore, she heard about joining Newspaper during the morning announcements and her English teacher, Mr. Kraus, encouraged her to fill out an application and display her knack for writing. This inspired her to apply and see if she could make it, which she did. Rodriguez joined in hopes of improving her writing skills, becoming less shy, and learning to write in more detail. To her, the best part about being on the newspaper staff is finding out about interesting, random things going on around the school. “There are things you would not know just coming to school, but being in Newspaper you learn things that aren’t common knowledge,” Rodriguez said. “We are the eyes and ears of the school.”

In her down time, Rodriguez enjoys reading young adult literature, writing fictional stories, and spending quality time with her cell phone on websites like YouTube, Tumblr, and Twitter. Besides being in Newspaper at school, she is also a new tutor at Downey High’s Writing Center. Writing as much as possible is important to her because she dreams of one day being an author. Along with chasing her aspirations of writing for a living, after she finishes high school, Rodriguez also looks forward to attending a university such as UCLA, San Diego State, or UC San Diego and obtaining a degree in English. Next summer, she will also be going on a missionary trip with church to Japan. Although her head is full of thoughts about the surreal future, for now Rodriguez is focusing on her schoolwork and activities and soaking up her last year as a high schooler.