3 articles, 1 week

Hi.

I'm a little stressed out.

So I did a story on a three-legged dog on Monday. Then I picked up the crime story on Seth Mazzaglia's indictment due Thursday. Then, Adam posted to the TNH group on Facebook that he needed extra stories because TNH content was low this week. I remembered a story I never gave to TNH from the beginning of the semester because it wasn't that good.

So I handed that in several hours after I passed in my Seth Mazzaglia story.

Know what I've learned? That the only reason I could do that was 'cause it was supposed to happen like that. I didn't force my way into those stories. I did my dog story, the only planned one for the week. The rest fell into place, like it was meant to be. Divine intervention, I call it.

I picked one other story cause TNH was in need. The other one was just a random thing I re-edited and passed in months after I did the story.

So this week, I've had three stories in the TNH paper. The random gluten-free article that I passed in at 10 PM last night got re-tweeted by a gluten-free movement on Twitter that I didn't even know about. People loved hearing about my dog story. Someone favorited it on Twitter.

I definitely don't acclaim it to my writing skills. I know I could use a lot of work as a writer. For my crime story, I was miserable. I had no idea how to write that thing and make it sound, I dunno, not like a police report. I emailed it to the TNH editors and I apologized. "Sorry this story is a mess guys. I had no idea what else to do with it."

Corinne Holroyd said she really liked it, and that she only changed two minor things.

I just feel humbled by the experiences I've gotten to encounter through TNH and News writing I. Where else would I have the chance to step out of my comfort zone and talk to amazing strangers all the time? Why else would I have a phone number to the Strafford County Superior Court in my iPhone?

I am also wondering where all the time went. At the beginning of the semester, Sandy said I could be good at news writing. But my first stories, the ungraded ones, were pretty bad. The gluten-free article I told you about -- yeah, I reread that last night to pass in, and I cringed.

Then Justin Doubleday was telling me about the applications for TNH and how they were due March 31. Then he reminded me in an email to pass in my application. And all of a sudden, I'm a staff-writer with at least 5 articles that I've written that made it to the front page? Yeah right. Even with physical proof, it feels more like an out-of-body experience than something actually happening to me.

So because I'm Catholic, I attribute my success to God. And thus, I can say with confidence: Graces from God, hard work, and a desire to produce quality. That's what got me where I am, and I still have a long way to go.