Sophomore Takes On Photojournalism

Never did I think I would ever be writing story after story for a class I decided to take for one of my sophomore year electives. 

When it came time to choose my classes at the end of my freshman year at Huntsville High School, I chose photojournalism because I thought it would be a free period, or a class in which I would do little to nothing. 

That all changed in the second week of school when I was actually assigned to write over a CTE class at my school. Originally I had planned to take pictures in this class, but I soon realized in this class you have to know how to do it all. 

You are always assigned something new. You're not always going to be a photographer and you're not always going to be a writer. Soon it will come to where you have to do both. So I learned that learning it all is better than being stuck on one thing and never learning how to do the other. 

Turns out I really enjoy writing. Journalism writing is mainly talking to and interviewing people to get all the correct information for my stories. I kind of like that.

This class isn't just about writing and taking pictures, it's about learning how to be responsible, making sure work is turned in on time, being able to talk to adults and learning how to carry conversations. 

Once I finished my first story, I realized this is what I like to do. Getting to not only put my own opinion in stories, but being able to tell stories for other people who can't do it themselves. 

When my first story came out in The Huntsville Item, I was so proud of myself. I wanted everyone to see that I could write something like this. 

What made it even better was that my whole family was bragging about it to one another. I saw how good it made me feel and that made me want to continue writing bigger and even better stories. 

Writing isn't so bad after all when you have a good topic and enough information to do the job. So who knows, maybe taking a new class will help you discover things you like and things you are good at. I’m sure glad that happened to me.