Autobiography

I can start by saying writing papers or having to describe myself has never been the easiest thing for me to do. I don’t know where to begin or what to use that the people listening might find interesting about me. I know this problem isn’t exclusive to me. It seems a lot of people have a tough time describing themselves, but here is my stab at it.

I recently turned 22 and was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where my permanent home still is today. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a strong interest in publication. I love reading the news, I love informing people of new things they hadn’t known before, and I loved to see my name in print. As I grew older, I gained an even bigger appreciation for news and news publications, and was eager to join the high school newspaper as a sophomore at McCluer High School.

There, I learned from my journalism adviser the basics of what journalism was and how to put out a respectable publication. As a junior, I was made editor of the high school paper and took it upon myself to ensure that our staff made the best paper we could with the tools we had. I loved everything about it and determined that this was a profession I would like to be involved with in my professional life.

My adviser helped me fine tune my work and over the course of the three years we spent working together, became a good friend of mine and is someone I set out to college hoping to never disappoint or let down.

In the fall of 2004, I worked as a sports writer for the Columbia Missourian and was assigned to cover the Rock Bridge High School football team. I enjoyed it very much and was able to manage a workable routine with the Rock Bridge head coach, who wasn’t the easiest coach to deal with for a young, learning journalist. He wasn’t the most accessible and he wasn’t very willing to go out of his way to provide stats or other important information. I successfully managed to cover the team’s entire 10-game season and produced several interesting features on players as well. When the season wrapped up, I was assigned to Hickman High School wrestling and covered a few meets before the semester ended.

If in this assignment you are looking to learn about my inner workings, I can tell you that the thought of being a letdown, to both to myself and to my high school journalism adviser, occurs to me quite a bit. Sometimes I feel like although I want to be a reporter, copyeditor or work in online journalism, I feel as if I’m not good enough to be successful in any of those professions. Sometimes I feel like my writing is lacking or that I can’t think of the right questions to ask a source. Sometimes I feel as if I’ll miss something important in copyediting that could be disastrous, and sometimes I think that my online journalism work could fall short of expectations as well.

The thing is, I know I can do these things and do them well. Sometimes I think I just lack the confidence in myself to get them done to a level of my personal satisfaction.

I have applied for a copyediting internship at The Sporting News, a weekly sports magazine with an office in my hometown of St. Louis. After submitting a resume and clips, I received an editing test for further evaluation of my skill. I was told I did very well on the test, but slightly less than a few of their other candidates, therefore not disqualifying me but also not guaranteeing me an internship either. I think situations such as these add to my confidence issue, knowing that the best opportunity for me is potentially out of my reach. I’m confused as to where to go and what to do should this opportunity fall through, and that’s a bad place to be so close to graduation.

I know things tend to work out for me, however, and I never seem to be in a spot where I can’t find a way out. I think landing a job or internship would help restore a lot of that confidence I sometimes lack and would go a long way to helping convince myself that a successful career in journalism is in my future.