100 is a number that we associate with good things.  

In school, it’s the top score on a test or quiz. It’s the perfect square of 10 (for all you math gurus and majors-to-be).  It’s the number of days in elementary school where we celebrate days of learning.

In government, it’s the basis of our monetary unit (100 cents in a dollar). It’s the amount of senators in the US Senate.

In sports, 100 is the number of yards on a football field or soccer pitch.  It’s the quantity of yards at the basis of each track race (it just multiplies after that.) 

In television, 100 is the amount of episodes a show wants to achieve, because it can be syndicated to show one episode every weekday without a repeat. 

In all entertainment, it’s the list to be on to show you’ve made something special. (For example, “AFI’s 100”).

And today, we have a new North Polk celebration of 100.

Olivia Moody joined the journalism department in fall of 2020, as we returned to school in masks, attempting to teach and learn through these barriers and computer screens, as well as start this new program. She was joined by then-junior Alexis Dorsett (‘22) and then-senior Sophie Hoffmeier (‘21).

As part of the Journalism Productions class, Olivia got a taste of all parts of journalism that we had to offer: Newspaper, Yearbook, and Broadcast…but Newspaper was her favorite (though I think she was headed in that direction well before the class.)

Today, we celebrate Olivia’s 100th article being published on “The Orbit”.  While some might think this is no big deal, I want you to think about the math of this:  We are in school for approximately 37 weeks of the year. Some of those weeks are shortened for holidays, weather cancellations, ISASPs and other testing schedules, conferences and more, so we don’t always put out a new article each week.  Olivia went into this school year having written 56 articles.  She wrote 22 more in the fall semester as the only newspaper editor.  This semester, while also being a page at the State Capitol AND only on NP campus on Fridays, Olivia chose to continue to write for “The Orbit”, sometimes writing two or three articles in a week. And when she saw the 100 was achievable before graduation, she upped her commitment further.

So today, we celebrate that 100th published article.  It does not come with a trophy, nor a participation award.  But it does come with an appreciation of Olivia’s time spent on honing her craft, passing her love on for the journalism she writes, continuing her journey into the “real world” of journalism as she majors in it at college, and of course, the “gifts” she has helped create with our previous editors to pass on to the current and future generations of “The Orbit” editors to come.

Congrats, Olivia, on this achievement!  We all wish you success in your journalism endeavors.