I have always loved communications and the media. In my middle school, we had the option of choosing an elective for our eighth grade year. We could choose anything from a language, to an art class, to another subject class, to a music class, to a yearbook class. I was already involved in the school's band, but I wanted to try something new, and I was particularly fond of yearbook because of the photography aspect, so I decided that was the elective I wanted.

At the end of the year, I realized that I really enjoyed being on a yearbook staff and decided to continue it throughout high school. I went from a "pre-yearbook staff" class where I was learning the ropes to be on the staff, to being a photographer, organizations editor, and then index and senior editor of my school's yearbook my senior year.

I even went to the National Student Leadership Conference held at American University the summer before my senior year, and studied Broadcast Journalism for 11 days to see if that's what I possibly wanted to do with my life. I lived in a dorm room and spent those days as if I was an actual college student. And I loved every second of it.

That experience reassured me that I made the right decision in my career path. I loved everything about the media and how communications impacts our world every day, so much that I decided to major in Journalism in college.

However, I always kind of new that I enjoyed journalism. Growing up I had tons of journals I kept and wrote in each day, and I loved writing. It was an escape for me.

Why do I want to be a news reporter/anchor when I keep talking about how much I enjoy writing, you ask? Well, I've always liked talking to people and keeping them up to date with things going on in our lives and the world itself. I've been in several TV studios (including at NBCUniversal in Washington, D.C.) and I have seen anchors report news live as well as reported news myself, and I love it.

I know the media doesn't really have the best reputation right now as a result of recent events, such as the Brian Williams scandal, which makes the viewers think reporters are untrustworthy, and I want to change that. I've been learning tons of rules of journalism and media law and ethics in my media studies classes, and I'm going to use that information to try and get people to see how journalists are supposed to act when on the job.

One of the biggest rules of journalism is to keep your opinion out of your stories and just report the news. Journalists aren't supposed to openly side with one party, because it's unethical, and people really just need to know the story, not how the journalist feels about it. I want to make a difference in the media world, and restore the public's faith in news reporters/anchors. The fact that I'm pursuing a career that I enjoy after graduating college is just icing on the cake.