My journey as a journalist

I quickly realized after writing a few articles that I had a lot to learn about the newspaper industry and about the different tasks I would have to take on.

Each week I have to write about five to seven stories, take photos (to coincide with those stories or as stand-alone photos) and write cutlines. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s an average number. The number can go up with the amount of things going on in the community, but, trust me, that number never goes down.

Once each story and/or picture is done I have to then have them edited, added to our website and link the story to our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Along with these tasks there’s also traveling to Daleville, Fort Rucker and sometimes Ozark, making and receiving phone calls, reading and answering emails, setting up interviews, producing videos once a month, covering nights and weekends and writing an opinion column every three weeks. It’s a lot of work, I know.

It can also be extremely stressful, but I’m not telling you all of this to complain. I’m telling you this because all of these tasks have made me grow as a journalist, and more importantly, as a person.

In the nine months I have been working at The Southeast Sun/Daleville Sun-Courier I have developed such a strong relationship with the Daleville, Fort Rucker and Dale County communities.

While covering the schools, I have developed a sort of motherly mentor relationship with the kids. I look at them like they’re my babies. Watching them grow and do such great things in life has brought me so much joy. It has been great to be a part of and to be the one to document it all.

With the Daleville Department of Public Safety, I have become their sister and they are my brothers and sisters. Every time I talk to the officers I’m always getting invited to do something I haven’t done before.

I’ve taken a ride in a police car, learned CPR and I’ve been drive stunned (tasered). It’s never a dull moment at the Daleville Department of Public Safety.

Now for the city’s leaders and officials, I have watched them bring so much change to the community. They have sparked a fire in the residents and even in me. It’s like we all really care about Daleville and want to see it grow and develop into something great, and personally I believe the residents deserve that much.

Lastly, I can’t forget to mention the relationship that I have developed with the Fort Rucker community. This aspect of my job has really been a blessing. It has been such an honor to watch and cover military customs and traditions.

Although the budget cuts have created such a significant impact to the post, they have opened a lot of doors for me and made me grow as a journalist.

I never thought I, in the beginning stages of my career, would have been given the opportunity to cover a press conference with the Secretary of the Army and Army Chief of Staff or to have a sit down with Fort Rucker leaders for an exclusive interview. Those three stories by far have been my biggest and most challenging, but, in my opinion, they have also been some of my greatest. It is those stories that have caused me to gain confidence in myself and led me to realize I can do great things as a journalist.