How I fell in love with journalism
Thanks to Michelle Hofmann
Well… it was the first day of the winter 2014 semester at my community college and I had signed up for J102, reporting news. It was a five-hour, four-day-a-week class that I enrolled for in hopes of boosting my GPA.
It was a cold January morning when I walked into class (late as always). And I saw this crazy red-headed woman with a British accent bumping rock music on the Windows XP computers of GCC. I wanted to leave immediately. But little did I know this crazy woman became the person I owe a lot to in my life.
I wanted to drop the class initially. There was no way I was going to wake up early and come to school every morning for eight weeks at 8:00 a.m.
But our first assignment was to describe our hands, and if you know anything about me is I am obsessed with hands. So I wrote that assignment and turned it in. We did some grammar stuff in class which I loved. Then, the next day, this crazy lady singles me out in class and tells everyone how great my writing was. This was my debut in the world of journalism.
Michelle told me she admired my writing and I should become a journalist. But I had just finished Chem 102, which was on the path of my biochemistry major. I wasn’t sure so I just thought I would continue taking this class because it was fun.
As days passed by, I fell more and more in love with journalism. I found out that I have a penchant for researching the truth and for storytelling. Michelle pushed my limits and made me see the potential I had.
Michelle framed my first published article.
I ended up switching my major, and I took her advanced news writing class later on. I even won a first place award for broadcast news writing at a convention, and she was there. She saw me win and she was so happy for me.
I am so thankful for you, Michelle. If you ever read this, please know that you made a big gigantic difference in my life and I’ll never be able to repay you. You’re truly an angel.
Michelle helped me find that passion, and if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. Thank you so much.
