Becoming a Reporter

All my life I've wanted to write.

I'd given up on that a long time ago, thinking that writing wasn't for me. I never had time to finish or even get through the first five or six chapters of my books.

Then Junior year I took a class at my high school called Yearbook. I had heard that you can do some Journalism writing in that class and I figured it would help me gain a better knowledge of how to write. Boy was I in for a surprise.

See, I'm not the normal high school student. Whenever a teacher would say the word 'report' and other students would groan I would sit up straighter in my chair ready to tackle whatever topic the teacher assigned. So when the Yearbook teacher asked me to write an article I completely threw myself into the project. Especially since I knew that this would be in the local newspaper, the Chronicle Progress.

When my teacher saw the work I had done he started asking me to write more. Of which I was happy to comply. Soon I was writing three to five articles a week. I loved it, and my teacher talked of making me head reporter of the school. I agreed to that as well, and in the process started my own club. See I needed help writing all these articles, and people kept telling me they were willing. So I made posters and put out announcements about the F.R.A. (Future Reporters of America) And my writers came running.

Things were great for a while, I had eight writers. All happy to take the assignments I gave them each week. But then fourth quarter rolled around and things got busy.

No one had the time to write anymore and now it was back to me. So my teacher and I distributed out who would write what article by who was on what team. It seemed that my club had diminished.

Next year, my teachers and fellow faculty members made sure that my club will have its own class time. Which means that I get to distribute out who will write what among the school activities.

Then summer rolled around, and I had been talking with the Chronicle about a job. They were training me and told me I was exactly what they were looking for.

I wasn't sure if they'd still take me on when I went to the office. But they were happy to hear from me and still wanted me there. So now I go out and find whatever story I can dig up and I get exposure and experience. Two things I was surly lacking.

I absolutely love the experiences being a writer (both good and bad) and I hope to keep doing it. As a close writer friend once said to me, "Its not being published that matters, its doing what you love."