Bittersweet Goodbye

Throughout my senior year of high school, I have somehow managed to learn a lot of things other than physics or economics, but I have never enjoyed writing and I still am not a fan to this day. Throughout my life I have always struggled with English. I couldn’t write to save my life and didn’t find it amusing.

When I first started high school, my writing skills were significantly lack-luster and English was one of my most hated subjects. I never liked reading and couldn’t stand writing paragraph after paragraph about something I didn’t like. But a subject I began to enjoy was art, especially photography. Photography allowed me to get interested in art, it allowed me to capture moments and I was praised for the quality of my photos, and eventually I was asked to join journalism.

I like to think that my photography was the only reason I was recruited to join journalism. I wanted to just take photos in journalism, and I wanted nothing to do with the writing aspect of journalism. When I was told I had to write an article on almost every issue, I felt like journalism was not the class for me.

However, I decided to test the water for a bit, and write an article. I forgot what the article was about, but I do remember that it was really bad. I didn’t know how to write an article, especially interviewing people. It took until my third article to write my first article in the correct LQTQ way.

While I was learning about writing articles and making engaging interview questions, my love of photography began to become neglected. I wanted to finish my article first before even thinking about taking photos, and therefore my photos began to turn out worse and worse.

All throughout junior year, I would focus all of my time on a certain aspect of my article. One issue was full-focus on interviews, the next issue was photos that got my attention. I never managed to use my time efficiently either, but this year I finally managed to get a plan that allowed me to first focus on my interviews and articles, and then focus on photos, which significantly improved my articles.
I am very glad that I was able to manage both parts of journalism. This year I can proudly say that both my photos and articles are significantly better than they were last year, except for this article.

This is probably the weirdest and most all over the place article I have ever written; it is extremely hard to write an article using the words “I” and “me.” Writing about yourself can be really hard, especially when it is about high school. When I first joined journalism last year, I joined in order to get another credit to get more off blocks in my senior year. But it has really helped me improve both my writing skills and my photography skills, and it allowed me to have only two classes this semester.

I want to thank my fellow staff members for encouraging me throughout both junior and senior year. I also want to thank everyone who had to bear my early interviews and all of my trial and errors. This class has helped me a lot and I am very grateful for it. Thank you, Journalism!