Love for newspapers continues to grow

I wish I could say, like one of my former coworkers, that my love for newspapers was fostered at a young age, but that simply wouldn’t be true.

For me, my love of newspapers grew throughout my life and continues to grow.

First, I must admit, I didn’t grow up reading the newspaper every day when I was a kid. However, I can recall looking through the newspaper around Christmas every year to see if my Christmas drawing or letter to Santa had made the paper. Each year, I was left with the same disappointment of seeing my friend’s drawings and letters to Santa in the paper. This led me to believe that A: I sucked at drawing and my letters to Santa were boring or B:, which I am sure was the real truth, my drawings and letters were just too good to print because the other classmates would be jealous. Yes. I know both of these are incorrect, but this was how my mind worked as a child, I think.

As I started to get older, I looked at my local, small-town weekly newspaper more and more because I wanted to see if I was in it. I was in 4-H, jazz band, the marching band, regular band and a couple of other clubs. I was also on the honor roll and so I looked to make sure my name was spelled correctly. I can still recall how excited I would get just to see my name in print, it was like I had made it big time. And just let me tell you, if I happened to have my photo in the paper, it was like I was queen for the day. If my mom hadn’t already clipped out the photo or my name out of the paper, I would. I grew up in a small town with a population of about 3,500 and yet I wasn’t in the paper all of the time so it was truly something special.

Today, my beautiful photo is in the paper every week on the opinion page, in case you haven’t noticed, and to me it is still something special.

I get such a feeling of pride and accomplishment. For most, they are in the paper because they’ve accomplished something, whether it’s making the honor roll, getting a scholarship, getting married, having a baby or winning the big game.

I am in the newspaper every week because I decided to pursue a career where I can combine several passions of mine -- writing, reading, taking photos, meeting new people and learning new things. With each new story I write or photo I take, I learn something. Sometimes I may not even know that I am learning it at the time, but later when I’m able to recall the information I am proud that I remembered it.

I know for residents in this community the same holds true. They are proud to be in the newspaper and it makes me feel even more special when I see clippings of photos I took and stories I wrote pinned to bulletin boards at schools, the senior center; and even at local businesses and nonprofit organizations.

When I see those clippings, I know I made someone feel special because they took time to cut it out and hang it up just the way my mom did for me. So next time you’re clipping something out of the newspaper, know it’s appreciated and one of the best ways to tell this journalist “Good job.”