I was a general opinion sports writer, and while others did more legwork and real reporting stuff, I always enjoyed being able to give my opinion on random sports thoughts about UNI. The freedom my editor at the time gave me allowed me to find my voice and figure out how to write for an audience. It also helped lay the groundwork to hone in my writing process and continually get better at it. 

Being in student journalism allowed me to be creative and find my voice. It challenged me to come up with unique takes and opinions. It made me realize any idea for an article is plausible in the right context. It fostered my interest in writing today and led to me to continue to write after I graduated college and use the creative writing process for my small budding journalism work for the Iowa Starting Line or in my stand-up comedy. It also impacted me in the amount of respect for journalists who put in the legwork to run down hard stories, while I never was one of them, I have great respect for those who put in the time and effort for a needed role in our society despite the lack of economic incentives at times. Journalism will always matter to keep the populace informed, and good journalism beats social media all day, every day.