“Stressful, exciting, and memorable” is how senior Lauren Mitchell would describe her time at AFHS. 

Sadly, OwlFeed’s Editor-In-Chief Lauren Mitchell will be graduating this year, but she will be furthering her journalism career at ASU’s Cronkite School of Journalism, to hope to soon become a professional journalist. 

She, however, didn’t always want to be a journalist. 

“It wasn’t in my plan until junior year,” Lauren said. “One point I wanted to be a zoologist, I also wanted tobe a teacher. I mean I took early childhood for a reason and then here I am now wanting to be a journalist, and yeah, I really love it.” 

She is known as a hard-working, overachieving student, always putting school first. She proudly brags about her 4.0 GPA. She said, “School has been my main thing for like four years.” Her activities after school mostly consist of her doing her homework. She may not like homework but she doesn’t mind doing it.

However, outside of school, Lauren likes snowboarding during winter and enjoys doing crazy things with her friends. 

She is also well known for her caring and loveable personality. “She somehow always can say something at the right moment to make people laugh,” said best friend Lily Osborne. “She has such a big heart and devotes herself completely to whatever she is doing.”

Lily Osborne is one of Lauren’s best friends. They’ve known each other since the 6th grade and have been “ride or die” since. 

“She is the one person I can talk to and not feel judgment from no matter what, and she is really more like my family then my best friend. She is one of those people that will be in my life forever, and I love that we push each other and grow together instead of getting stuck in our ways,” Osborne said. 

Another good friend of Lauren’s is Camryn Sperry. They have known each other since they were seven and consider each other sisters. “I’ve been friends with Lauren for as long as I can remember,” Sperry said. “We just clicked in a way that I can’t describe. Our friendship is not perfect, we’ve had our fair share of ups and downs.” 

Lauren has said both Lily and Camryn have a huge influence on her life. She considers them family including her dad and three dogs. 

As many might know Lauren has been part of OwlFeed since her freshman year, taking the class for three out of her four years. 

In her freshman year, she introduced an infamous innovation to the publication, coming up with the program for regular newsletters. She also served as the first media editor. 

Even though she didn’t do journalism in her sophomore year she continued and joined the journalism club. “I was like the one person in the journalism club which never really happened, but it was fine,” she said. 

As soon as she came back, she was now a news editor as well as a media editor. She said she was shy at first because of the many upperclassmen who were in her section. Also it was her first time being in the news section. 

By the next semester, she had been asked to take on a higher leadership position as Editor-in-Chief. 

Lauren thanks Carlos Johnson for his help during her first semester as Editor-in-Chief. 

“I was so nervous being Editor-in-Chief. Like the first meeting I had to stand up there and I remember being awkward, it was like I couldn’t function, it was so weird,” she said. “Carlos helped me so much along the way. He was the one person who would cheer me on when he knew that I was so nervous.”

She was indeed happy that Carlos was offered to be the Editor-in-Chief the next year and she went back to “her roots” as media editor. She then became Editor-in-Chief a second time in her last semester of senior year. She is currently teaching her apprentice — known around OwlFeed as her “padawan” — how to media edit and feels like a proud mother being able to pass on her skills. 

Other than going to journalism class, her other favorite memories at AFHS was anything that involved hanging out with her friends and being around AFHS campus. 

Lauren even considers Agua Fria home. “What it means to be an Owl is like this overwhelming pride and it’s like everyone is here for one another,” she said. “It’s like having a home away from home.” 

“That’s what social distancing has taught me, that I miss my home and my friends and my family there,” she added.

She is truly sad that she won’t finish her senior year in a traditional way but is thankful for all the memories and people who have influenced her this year. She will miss AFHS and everyone. 

“I’d shout out my dad for raising me, Lily for always being there, Camryn for being my sister, and  everyone else who surrounds me with love and has made me who I am,” she said.

And lastly, with her ray of positivity, Lauren Mitchell will be remembered for saying, “It is always a good day to have a great day.”