There's something so incredibly gratifying about filling a blank page with five-hundred plus words of your own that can influence the world so exponentially. There's something so addicting about ink-stained and cramped up hands; you can feel the desperation to inform the truth pulsing through muscle spasms. I am not a musician but I type on the keyboard as if I were creating magical notes on the piano; prodigious sheet music is born. I am not an artist but the stories I create are immaculately painted; my brush strokes are accurate, I am articulate. There is something so astounding about waking up in the morning and knowing you can change the world just by a few printed words. We are like the moon, we control the tides.
We can make your eyes tear, heart sing, and ears ring. We can make your jaw drop, gut wrench, and fists clench.
The world of journalism encompasses the most passionate and insatiably inquisitive people. Journalist's acquire an irrevocable desire to speak to the world. We put ourselves in war zones, crime scenes and natural disasters just to achieve the perfect story. We push our way through stampedes of press and paparazzi to get the perfect quote. We go through years and years of school just to end up working for an average, semi-livable salary. But all these things do not matter to us. They don't matter because we are doing what we were born to do, we are living the dream. We are the world's storytellers.
The newsroom is one of the most marvelous places in the world; ideas and opinions shoot through the air. Your bones are warm because every individual radiates passion and desire. The newsroom is our collaborative safe haven. This is where we are challenged, this is where where stories are born. The newsroom is home. To us, writing is not a job or a tedious task. Writing is everything. We live, sleep, eat and breathe writing. When we see our finished work published, all the hard work we put into it is worthwhile.
And you ask me, "why journalism?" Because I know what it's like to be voiceless. I know what it's like to be trapped so deeply with hundreds of thousands of things to say but simply cannot because no one will listen. I know what it's like to stand up on the edge of the highest mountain, my mouth wide open ready to explode, but instead, nothing comes out. I know what it's like to crave adventure so severely but unable to because of lack of opportunity. But most of all, I know what it's like to unconditionally desire to tell the world the truth through my words. That is why I chose journalism.
