PERSONAL NARRATIVE
The first days of my sophomore year in my high school’s newspaper, The Muse, were spent learning procedures and draft cycle rotations. Sitting in the far right corner of the classroom, eyes feverously trying to catch the whirlwind of information being presented in the front of the room by our two editor in chiefs, I was pushed headfirst into the world of journalism. Throughout my life, I always knew I liked words, whether that be writing them, reading them, or talking with them. However, as my age grew and brain matured, my passions grew and specified. In middle school I found a liking for all things journalistic and joined my school's newspaper crew. With a school of less than 200 middle schoolers, and a staff of about 10 people, the publication wasn’t taken as seriously as 12 year old me would have liked. With those limitations, and the bigger threat of COVID-19 cutting my middle school experience short, my years of journalism was over sooner than it started. Nevertheless, With the few months I had learning new vocabulary and writing skills, the experience drew my attention to the world of journalism more fiercely than before. Which is why, when applying and then getting accepted into Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the arts 4 years later, I made it my personal mission to get into journalism again. For good.
During the beginning of the 2023-2024 year, and the summer before my sophomore year, I was oblivious to the intricacies of journalism. I knew the basics: all good newspapers need writing, photos and designs could make or break a spread and being in a publication would take a lot of work. However, when making my first official article in august for The Muse, I was met with more problems than I could handle. I was tasked to create a opinion piece about Freedom Week, an annual holiday in Florida schools that mandates the learning of the American Revolution. Easy, I thought. I knew what Freedom Week was, knew I dreaded it, and knew that others did too. What I didn’t know when first being handed the task, was that the point of journalism is not to be superficial. Everything in life has a deeper story and meaning if you have the strength to peel back the layers. When opening a Google Document to write the article, I soon realized how important digging deeper really meant. I couldn’t write anything. My strong opinions and ideas when first hearing about the topic wanted to vomit over the whole page and create an article of what I originally thought. However, I knew that without knowing what Freedom Week really was, my article would have lacked substance and my ideas I wanted so desperately to form would crack under the pressure. So, I spent hours of my time reading legislation, listening to teachers, parents, students, and different writers on what Freedom Week really meant to them. My original opinion still remained, however I knew there was a deeper reasoning to my disdain of the holiday.
This pattern of intense research never faltered after I completed my first web cycle. My attempts to write a well balanced were not in vain, as “America Won! Trust Me, We Get It.” Won a SNO award. I knew then when receiving the paper certificate that writing was more important to me than I thought, and, just like the articles I so meticulously peeled back and inspected before I wrote, I had to treat the entirety of the publication with the same regard.
