A journalist’s love-hate relationship with her passion.
In middle school, with hands that barely covered the sides of my new Nikon, I ran up and down the local soccer fields trying to get the perfect shot.
My descent into journalism began at my younger brothers’ soccer games, where I would attend matches with a camera dangling off my neck and a sparkle in my eye. Sports photography has always interested me, and I was determined to capture images like the ones in my brothers’ soccer magazines.
Writing stories is another passion of mine, and I wanted the chance to test my abilities in the nonfiction genre. After a few weeks of begging my eighth-grade English teacher, a year-long journalism class was created, where I ran a feature story on 4-H students at our local fair.
The next year I entered ninth grade and found myself within the staff of Madera High School’s print newspaper, The Maderan. From August 2014 to May 2015, I was editor-in-chief and ran a staff of six people while covering multiple beats. It’s what I consider my first introduction into a true newsroom environment, but the stresses of deadlines and having a small staff took a toll. At the end of the year, I rescinded my position and announced that I would never pursue a career in journalism.
My adviser at The Maderan was an older man with an unforgettable Texas drawl, an endless collection of patterned ties and a penchant for referring to me strictly by my last name. When he heard the news of my “retirement,” he simply laughed.
“You’ll find yourself back in this industry, I know it,” he said.
Fictional stories, which I had been writing and reading even before high school, became my main focus. In 2015, I was given the opportunity to attend the California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) at the California Institute of the Arts in order to sharpen my skills in writing fiction. One month of poetry, dramatic scripts and flash fiction laid ahead of me, but creative nonfiction had managed to force its way onto my schedule while masquerading as an elective. Clutching my pencil in silent fury, I spent the first week in class seething over my bad luck and the fact that we had to write about crime — a topic I had never encountered before.
By the end of my month in Valencia, an enemy had become a friend. My nonfictional piece on Bonnie and Clyde had been chosen as worthy to be shown to the entire department, and my interest in journalism had been reignited.
Almost two years after my first stint as a high school journalist, I stepped back into the newsroom to help shape The Maderan’s new website. This role consisted of learning how to shoot video, navigate WordPress and edit audio among other things. Exciting new challenges were presented to me due to the online shift, but my enthusiasm quickly faded as I faced the pressure of deadlines and uncooperative reporters. Another year as a journalist had passed, and my relationship with the industry was developing like a thousand-page novel.
Landing a job with the Nazarian College my first year at CSUN pushed me to try a field I had never thought of before: public relations and social media management. I’ve now held the role of Student Assistant to the Communications Specialist since 2018. When I worked in the office, my daily tasks covered a wide range of things, from drafting press releases to creating gift bags for guest lecturers. Now, I work from home and spend the majority of my shifts monitoring the Nazarian College’s many social media accounts. I keep finding myself writing features, though, regardless of whether it gets published or not.
Despite my complicated relationship with journalism and all it entails, I truly can’t see myself doing anything else. My love for reading, writing, photography, travelling and learning all can coalesce in this career. It’s something that I don’t think I will find anywhere else.
Whether it’s covering breaking news or the best restaurants to visit in Los Angeles, I know I’ll enjoy whatever I do in this industry as long as I can continue to write.
