In today’s society, 75 percent of teenagers are not serious about their education; they are mainly muddling through, pushing just hard enough to graduate and get out of high school. Then there are the rest that really set their minds to learning and striving towards the goal of making the grades needed to move on to a university or community college.
I want to be in that number.
As a junior in high school it can be hard to stay focused on your future plans. When I want something, I work really hard to make it happen. Writing has always been a joy for me: from age 11, doing reports in school never really seemed like work. I never realized how much I enjoyed it until about two years ago. It keeps your mind wandering, and if you are an author or a columnist it keeps other minds wandering as well.
Let’s say you are reading a book by your favorite author, and you just cannot put it down; your imagination is running wild because you feel as though you are actually part of the story. That’s the effect I want my writing to have on people. Words play such an important role in our lives.It is such an amazing thing to be able to grab people’s attention through words.
That is my reason for pursuing journalism, and taking this offer at the newspaper to become an intern. When I sat down with Ms. Sherry Matthews, she asked me why I wanted an internship. My reply was, “Because I want to write.”
This opportunity will give me the chance to write about many different things — stories that matter, that inspire and encourage. It will also give me the experience of meeting deadlines, and the knowledge of an editor/publisher that can instruct and challenge me to be a better writer. Being an intern will also give me the opportunity to meet new people and tell their stories, thereby giving me a pallet of different topics. This internship will keep me accountable, not only to my editor, Ms. Matthews, but also to the community that The Sampson Independent serves.
I have many goals I would like to achieve writing for The Sampson Independent; however, my main focus will be my readers. Having my articles in print is exciting, but I want my words to bring as much joy to my readers as penning them does to me.