Sohan Raval, journalism’s assertive yet strikingly nonchalant senior managing editor, is ending his time here at Ayala. Pushing his way through COVID struggles and a shortened high school experience, he’ll turn the page to the college chapter of his life.

Unfortunately for him, it was the COVID skid that diminished the time he was able to spend surrounded by school spirit. 

“I never really got to feel the spirit of Ayala and the Bulldog way and things like that,” said Raval. “So, I mean, overall, I had a great experience in general as a school itself, but I feel like I never was able to get that full experience that I wanted.”

Throughout the years, there was one staff member Raval kept by his side, a teacher that has gone beyond being a teacher and instead a friend: Ms. Taylor Clark.

“It’s been really, just really cool to have a teacher that’s by your side that can help you out with anything that you really need and anything that you’re going through,” said Raval.

He commented that, at one point during a state conference, she “was like [his] school mom at one point.” She took care of him and through that they got to know each other a lot more.

Raval’s development was also dependent on the presence of his close friends, some he’s kept close since junior high. There’s one friend that he says he’s close enough with to consider a brother, a person who has been with him through the highest and lowest points of his life. 

That person is senior Samuel Ahn, who said that, “Sohan is the definition of a friend that will stick with you until the end, no matter the situation. In the five years that I have known him, Sohan has always been someone I can depend on to talk to and spend time with through the highs and lows of life.”

Raval reciprocated the praise, saying that Ahn “has always been there for me, and I just feel really happy that I’ll be able to end these four years with him in a good way.”

Through his tenure with the journalism class, he’s the only Bulldog Times staff member that was in the class since before the integration of new editor-in-chief Mrs. Tse. 

“The first year I had it with Mr. Higgins,” Raval said. “He was the old school writing store newspaper style.” 

When Ms. Tse was hired, he was skeptical of how the publication would continue under the control of an unfamiliar face. However, knowing Ms. Tse, she handled and grew the publication extremely well. 

“She does things that make sense for journalism itself, the way she’s done things, the way she inputs people’s ideas into her curriculum, and the way she teaches journalism itself is probably the best it can be at Ayala,” said Raval. 

His freshman year with Mr. Higgins was still something that he remembers with joy, a year-long occurrence that happened only because he was the lone freshman in a class full of juniors and seniors.

“The first time Mr. Higgins saw me, he actually just started calling me little one, the whole entire year,” said Raval. “And he would just call me as I’m the little one. And it was honestly kind of funny, and everyone got a lot of jokes out of it.”

Raval’s entire high school adventure will end with him departing to pursue a career in business technology, a lucrative market and something that he hopes to correspond with a career in sports.

“I hope to be a data analyst one day, especially a data analyst for a sports team,” said Raval. “That would be the dream, because then I can also become a sports journalist in a way with the sports data analysts.”

It’s been a long journey, a seemingly endless street that through its tribulation leads to endless avenues of opportunity and success. The absence of Raval’s mellow occupation in the Bulldog Times classroom will be a difficult hole to fill. 

As the upcoming sports editor for the publication, I hope to follow the example that he has set as a leader in the publication and continue to silently root for the downfall of his Los Angeles Angels as I would do every day when he was in class. 

Soon it will all be a distant memory but for now a begrudged farewell. Sohan Raval, we wish you the best of luck.