Up until a few years ago, I hated writing. I would only write when I absolutely had to for an English assignment. It wasn't until I joined my high school newspaper that I fell in love with writing about things happening around me, as well as my own experiences.
Going into my senior year of high school, I needed an extra class to fill up my schedule, because we we're allowed to have any gaps in our schedules, but I had absolutely no idea what to take and not too many classes fit into the gaps that I had in my schedule. I was on the Student Government at my high school, and we were required to help out with registration/orientation in August. Sometime at the start of August, we had to stuff registration packets with the many different forms that had to be filled out to register for classes, and in walks in the Newspaper & Yearbook adviser/freshman English teacher. He starts complaining (or more of talking to himself) that he is extremely low on writers for the school paper, especially for the second and third trimesters.
I take not of this and go talk to him about it, because that was always a class I would have like to take and it fit perfectly into my schedule (and if it didn't I could always independent study the class). Normally students had to apply to be on the newspaper/yearbook staff, but because I had him for Honors English as a freshman, he said that he would just accept me, because he knew my writing style and quality already.
After this conversation I had with him, getting my schedule officially changed with the counselors and in the system was another struggle. But finally, after the first day of school, I was able to officially change my schedule and write for the school paper for the year.
Being on the school paper opened up many different opportunities for me. Writing about my personal experiences taught me different things, and ultimately led me to where I am today. One of my articles actually won me first place in our division from the high school press association in our state, which actually gave me the opportunity to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and take a gap semester in Poland, as I wrote about a while back and can read at https://www.theodysseyonline.com/my-study-abroad.
Because I fell in love with writing during this class in high school, allowed me to be able to study Journalism more as a minor and start writing for the Odyssey.
