I first heard about The Feather in eighth grade during chapel, when journalism adviser Greg Stobbe provided the basics of what The Feather is and what the staff does. The features that he explained really interested me to join journalism when high school came to me.

As soon as I found out that I had journalism in my schedule, I was pretty excited because I could not wait to write for an online high school newspaper that has been nationally ranked for the past 6 years.

The main reason why I joined journalism was to improve on my English skills. My weakest subject is English and since I’m in the honors class, this class has helped me for when I write my essays or short stories.

Some skills I have obtained while I was in this class is the idea of brainstorming to clarify my purpose, plus, the importance of who, what, where, why, when, and how. I also learned how to interview people, asking questions that accurately represent the topic.

I’ve had a great time in journalism so far. My nickname in the class has actually become “Pylon” because my favorite color is orange, and since it is my favorite color, I like to wear all orange. When Stobbe saw me wearing all orange, he started to call me “Pylon” because he thought of me as being a post in the middle of a football field.

When I heard that Stobbe was taking students to New York, I was so excited because I have never been to New York before and it has been on my bucket list for a while. So, after having my permission from my parents and paying the fee for the trip, I was eligible to go.

Going to New York has changed my view of the whole city. It’s so big that what you see on TV is nothing compared to seeing it in real life. I didn’t think that one week would be enough for me but I still had so much fun.

When The Feather staff found out that we won a Gold Crown from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) at Columbia University, we jumped for joy because the staff and especially the editors have worked so hard to deserve the award.

Ever since I joined journalism, it has helped me to write my English papers better. For example, it has helped me how to use punctuations correctly and how to best create paragraph structure.

I would like to thank Stobbe and The Feather staff for giving me a really good first experience in journalism. Joining the class was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @mattgarza2017. Follow The Feather via Twitter: @theafeather.

For more opinions, read the March 28 article, Vista hispano de las tradiciones familiars de vacaciones.