Every day I get to feed my nosy personality and I can just say I’m doing my job. 

I guess one reason to become a journalist is if you think your own life is boring, you can live vicariously through others. (Or you can become one for much better reasons such as having a need serve the public, wanting to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, realizing the value of information). 

I think the best part about reporting is being able to meet complete strangers, ask them about their lives and not seem creepy. And then I get to go an retell this person’s story. 

As a reporter, you also enjoyed getting to know my school in a completely different way than the average student. Not many get to know the administrative staff, the campus and city police, the club heads and general public the way a reporter does. I went on to intern in Illinois and realized I know more about Iowa than I do about my home state. Three years ago, I had never even set foot in this state.

I started at the Daily a little over a year ago not exactly knowing what I wanted to do with this whole journalism thing. I enjoyed radio, but figured getting down news writing for a daily newspaper wouldn’t hurt. I did know one thing, I read Silence of the Lambs, I saw the author was a police reporter. I was going to be a police reporter.

A year later, I am the politics and administration news editor. I have gotten to the opportunity to see what I experienced a year ago through the eyes of my new reporters. I got to remember how terrified I was to write and have my editor review my writing, how impossible it seemed to come up with my own story ideas, how hard it was to write a good lead. 

After a semester of reporting, the position for news editor opened. I pushed aside the thoughts of not being qualified and fear of failing and applied anyways. The beginning weeks were rough, but I learned that the best way to grow is by doing. I have great professors who only help me improve on my skills, but all the basics that I learned, I have the Daily to thank. 

This job is a lot of work. It takes a lot of hours, a lot of stress, a lot of frustration, but in the end, if you don’t think it’s all worth it, you’re in the wrong profession.