Becoming a newspaper contributor

“When my best friend got the only position available to a sophomore, I was devastated. I faced a major decision: Walk away from the paper forever and dive into another extracurricular activity, or swallow my pride and write as a contributor. I knew I was meant to be a part of this paper, no matter how long it would take me to get on staff. No assignment was too big or too small. I would prove to them that I deserved it.”

“After spending a little more than a year only coming into the office for our weekly writer meetings, where I would pitch stories for my food beat (which later became a geek culture column), I was welcomed into my first newsroom experience Jan. 11. That first week in January was such a rush, but it was also marked with the surprisingly tiring Monday work of copy editing each and every one of the 25–30 stories we would publish every week from then on out. But I learned that it was undoubtedly worth it, with the chance to see (and show off to my family) my name listed with the rest of the staff on the fourth page of each week’s paper.”