After finishing up my second year on staff, I have come to realize that journalism has become so much more
than a class, or a club to me. It has become my life. I have put more time and effort into the newspaper staff than I have into the rest of my classes combined, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is, that I have thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.
I became interested in journalism at the end of 8th grade, when I was trying to figure out what I was going
to do for the next four years of my life. My sister suggested it, but I never gave it serious consideration until Madison Smith and Elizabeth Cartwright, the Editor in chiefs of staff at the time, came into my English classroom and enticed me with their stories of wacky misadventures on staff. I was immediately drawn in after talking at length with my sister about the benefits of staff. After applying, and getting accepted, the following year would be one of the toughest but most rewarding years of my life.
I skipped the pre-requisite Journalism I class, which meant I was to pick up the rules and protocol over the
course of the year. It was a disastrous year, filled with missed deadlines and truck loads of stress for those trying to help me. It was this past year that I began to achieve success, starting with making my first met deadline on a story that ended up winning an FSPA All Florida award. I found myself able to answer the numerous requests for help from the newly enlisted members of staff. Not to say that I wasn’t plagued with a bit of trouble this year, but I feel I have taken large steps to get where I am now.
Coming into this next, third year on staff, my feelings towards journalism have changed, and stayed the
same. I still harbor a love for journalism, just a different kind of love. In my freshman year, I was anxious to learn and become a part of the journalistic process¬, and after finishing up my second year, my passion has gained an understanding of what journalism really is. I look to next year impatiently, eager to share what I have learned with those taking their first steps into journalism.