Hi, I'm Gracie!

 

I was seven years old when I won my first award for writing.

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Granted, it was an award from my teacher, Mrs. Rubio, who called it the “Ruberry Award,” and it was for a 24-page story inspired by Where the Wild Things Are; but it’s the concept that counts. 

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I was never an athlete— much to my family's dismay. I tried volleyball and soccer and horseback-riding and everything in between, but nothing seemed to click. That is, until my freshman year of high school, when I took my very first steps into the Fenton InPrint classroom.

 

For the first time in my life, I had my volleyball team. My Editors-In-Chief were my passers; my writers my setters; the ball my work; 5-109 my court and the opposing team my audience. I learned that this was a game that I could play professionally. 

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This first taste was not enough; I needed more. And so I interned at our local paper. And attended a summer journalism camp. And another. I went to a single-day seminar. And a few more. I traveled to New York City for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association— twice. I started a journalism club for middle schoolers so that I could share its beauty with the rising generation. I was accepted to Emerson College in Boston as a journalism major. I applied, and was hired, at professional papers. I had an obsession with journalism that everyone laughed at, but I didn’t care. I found my niche in a newsroom instead of on a field, and no one had to validate it. 

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In my short four years in the journalistic field, I’ve come a long way, but I know that I have so much further to go. I can’t imagine a period of time long enough to spend writing, but I’ll start with a lifetime and see where it goes.

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