At times, I wish I had joined journalism earlier. I have always loved to write, but I didn’t hear about the class until the end of my sophomore year. Joining the wlhsNOW staff has taught me a lot about myself. I have written articles for almost every section, but my favorite aspects of journalism include sports, features, and photography, which has led me to the realization that I could make a career out of my interest in journalistic writing.

After completing my first year on the wlhsNOW staff, I was promoted from a staff reporter to the Sports Section Editor, meaning I am now fulfilling a leadership role.. I look up to the people around me and try to learn everything that I can each day I take the class. Now, I am going to college to major in Journalism, and eventually plan to focus on equine journalism.

I’ve been going to Fall Media Day at the University of Oregon since my sophomore year, and I went to my first Spring Media Day last year. However, because of the time and money commitments, and due to the fact that I wasn’t sure how serious I was going to be about journalism, I had never considered going to the National Journalism Convention.

This year, since I’ve grown more serious about journalism in the future, I decided that I would attend my first convention, taking place in Nashville, Tennessee, with the goals of learning as much as I can about journalism, visiting a state I’ve never been to before, and meeting other high school journalists from around the world.

From the minute we arrived at Portland International Airport, I could feel the unity between everyone on the journalism and yearbook staff. Everyone was excited to go, learn new things, compete, and experience everything that Nashville had to offer. 

I decided to try a new competition for me to branch out and expand my portfolio. While at Fall Media Day, I have competed in on-site feature writing and placed excellent and honorable mention. At nationals, I participated in Literary Arts Magazine Photography. Although I didn’t place, taking a photo to go along with a poem assigned to me in an hour and a half was a fun way to challenge myself and try something that I wouldn’t have normally done.

I attended more than seven sessions on sports writing and photography, improving my writing, being a purposeful editor, conducting interviews, and many other topics. I learned how to line dance, walked Music Row at night, visited Jack White’s Third Man Records, saw the Country Music Hall of Fame, and grew closer to everyone on staff. This year, our Amplifier news magazine got eighth in the country, and the website earned fourth. I am so glad that I went on this trip and will continue to use everything that I learned throughout my journalism career.