Life of a Journalist 3: A Reflection of The Flaming Arrow

Sylva sunset

This was my column originally published July 20, 2012 in The Western Carolinian. 

I started working in the journalism field at "The Flaming Arrow." It was a tiny pamphlet-like booklet with no color whatsoever and folded like a magazine. In the center sat two giant staples that held it together and forbade the reader from turning to any of the other pages. It only wanted to happily sit open at the page where the staples were visible. This was my high school newspaper, and it is how I got started in all of this.
"The Flaming Arrow" was not what one would call "hard news." The biggest stories we ever covered were on teen pregnancy and the asbestos concern in the school's ceilings. Everything else had to do with feature stories on interesting teachers, who won the recent rivalry football game (which definitely was not us) and where students traveled for the holidays. Our biggest and greatest story every year was what happened and who showed up at prom! The truth, most students wanted the newspaper for the buy one, get one free six-inch Subway sandwich advertisement. Most kids would tear out the back page and throw away the rest without looking at it.
But to our ten-person staff, "The Flaming Arrow" was our pride and joy. It was the main reason that I finished high school.
Maybe you have found that talent comes absolutely natural to you. It is like breathing. You don't have to think about it, and further instruction on how to improve that talent is neither difficult nor stressful. For me, that was journalism, and with "The Flaming Arrow," I got the start I needed to move forward into college.
Until I actually got to college... My journalism class in high school was taught by an English teacher, who graduated from Western Carolina University. He not only encouraged me to attend WCU but also to get involved with the paper. Boy, did I get a shock when I stepped into the Old Student Union building for the first time! 

 Did you know that there is a separate style for journalism articles? I certainly did not, and neither did my English teacher who taught us to write in MLA like he would for an English class. The news reporting AP style was something completely different and bizarre. No italics! Commas have no rhyme or reason to them. Only the first word of a headline, unless part of a series or a proper noun, is capitalized. I was baffled.
Thankfully, The Western Carolinian is a teaching newspaper, one that guides and corrects in a forceful but non-threatening manner, one that does not grade or judge but helps to improve. With that in mind, I blazed forward from a staff writer in the Arts and Entertainment department to being the first sophomore News Editor in several years.
I would encourage anyone and everyone who has not found that natural, raw talent to seek it out without delay or hesitation. While it is important to try new activities and get out of The Comfort Zone, there is nothing wrong with relaxing in the fact that you can recognize the gift that makes you unique. It can take you places you never thought possible.
You may have read the stories of my freshman days in "The Freshman Fifteen" or how my cat and I went through living off campus together until I decided to transfer away to a different university. But, what brought me back to Western Carolina was this paper, and I will always look back to reminiscence on my "The Flaming Arrow" days as the starting point to bringing me here as your Co-Editor-in-Chief.