I am a reporter because I have an insatiable curiosity. I said this to my university advisor, who looked up at me and said she’d never heard anyone of her students say that in recent memory. I thrive on stories in which I learn along with the reader; subjects that I have hardly ever heard of.
I write for a weekly newspaper in a rural community, where stories would go untold if we weren’t there. Sure, I drag myself to three-hour city council meetings where I might only get one story. But I also get to explore the aquarium through a child’s eyes, see how important a stream is through a salmon’s journey, and help keep democracy in its place by pestering local officials during an election.
I look at every piece through the eyes of the one reader that thinks this article will really matter. I write because there is passion in this world that goes unrecognized. I am a journalist.