While journalism takes time, self-motivation and lots of patience, I believe it is a tool to help individuals develop life skills for the present and future.

After getting settled into high school, I decided to join journalism in order to improve my writing skills and build confidence. Although I had been told that the class was not easy and that it basically meant giving up my social life, I wanted a first-hand experience that would stretch my personal abilities.

Within the first few weeks of school, I was assigned to be in charge of the daily quote. My initial reaction was, “Wow, it’s my first year and they chose me to be responsible for this?” I thought it was a great privilege and gladly took on the responsibility.

Only after a few more weeks did I realize what I had to do. Putting up quotes meant making sure a quote had not been used before, looking up background on the person quoted and changing the quote every single day!

Before I knew it, I found myself stressing out about writing articles and doing the Quote o’ the Day. I would make mistakes with the quotes and not notice them until after publishing them online. Overwhelmed, I began to doubt if I could really handle journalism, and it was only the beginning of the first semester!

Soon, I had accomplished writing several articles and finally got the hang of Quote o’ the Day, reminding myself that it was only one small task out of my day.

As the first semester was coming to a close, my adviser, Greg Stobbe, assigned me to write the girls’ basketball sport shorts. My mind was about to explode: Writing articles, putting up quotes and writing about every single basketball game?

Stobbe assured me that I would have people like Danielle St. Marie, ’12, to help me learn how to write sport shorts. I am so thankful for Danielle because she is the person who guided me through the writing and helped me maintain composure while under pressure.

For example, there was one particular weekend during Christmas break when I ran into some problems while writing the sport shorts. I immediately texted Danielle and she helped me figure out what was wrong.

Individuals like Danielle are people who add to the reason why I enjoy being in journalism. Stobbe constantly reminds our staff that we are a team: Whatever we do as individuals contributes to how the team stands overall.

As Andrew Carnegie once said, “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

I believe that is exactly what journalism is: every student accomplishing his or her personal goal in order to accomplish even greater goals as a whole.

While each of us have various positions — adviser, editor-in-chief, editors and writers — my goal is to do the best I can at whatever is given to me. It means not worrying about the interview and quotes I could mess up or to be continually looking for the easy way out.

I know that among all the things Stobbe pushes the staff to do, it is his best interest for us that we put everything we have into what we are doing. Regardless of how long it takes for me to learn something, how discouraged I get or how I end up in moments when I lose all patience, I know that if I put my best into my work, the result will be rewarding.

Journalism has not only helped me improve my writing and made me feel like part of a team, however; it has also showed me that I need to take every area of my life and give it my best effort with a positive attitude. It may be difficult at times, or most of the time, but I know that what I achieve today will lead to even bigger achievements as I go through life.

For more content related to JEA’s Scholastic Journalism Week, read the Feb. 23 article, Journalism hones junior’s skills, redefines individuality.

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