My Journalism Career-Now and Forever

Yearbook is the main spark that sent me into my love of journalism.  I joined yearbook in eighth grade where my friend and I were the only people in it out of our whole 1,200 population school. We created the whole book with the help of the adviser, and stayed after every single day in the spring. I signed up for it in high school because I just really loved looking at yearbooks from the past and I wanted to be a part of something people would look at again in thirty years. It’s a timeless book that can bring a fifty year old back to the memories of being a fifteen year old. It’s grown into more than just doing it when I had room in my schedule and because my friend did. I fell in love with it, and I really looked up to my editor. I realized that I’d be pretty good at editor work, and she often asked me-a lowly freshman-to help her with editing. The more I did in yearbook the more I loved it, and she began talking to me about being an editor after she graduated. Of course I was thrilled and decided to keep up the good work and make that a goal for my high school career. Well, here I am, a junior achieving my goal of being an editor and enjoying every bit of it.

There are so many opportunities in journalism that I want to do. I love fashion and looking at all the new trends. I’d love to work on a magazine like Vogue, or even Seventeen. Another part of me likes politics and I’d like my points of view shown through some editorials in Time Magazine. I deeply love photography and it would be a dream to take pictures for Associated Press or National Geographic-traveling the world while doing my dream job.

I love going to events to take pictures. I’m one of the few people who actually enjoy writing stories for yearbook. I like interviewing people because like hearing other peoples’ stories. I’m good at digging for information I need to know, whether it’s the scoreboard for the varsity baseball team, or finding out about someone who has a secret talent of unicycling. People in journalism are kind of creepy aren’t they? We aren’t afraid to find out what we need or want to know. We aren’t afraid to ask too many questions or get up close in personal while taking pictures. That may push some away from journalism, but it draws me in. That’s why I want to do some kind of journalism forever. Not because it will guarantee me tons of money. Not because I have a few friends that are into it too. Not even because I necessarily want to climb up the ladder and be an editor. I want to be a journalist mainly because I just enjoy it and it’s something I’m good at.