Opinion
A mix of editorials and blogs, these stories have been an outlet for me to explore my own voice and opinions with more stylistic writing than news briefs but still with enough structure to help guide me. Some of these are based on my own experiences and beliefs while others are based on issues I’ve seen in my community or in the world.
Fresh Voice
This was the first piece I ever wrote in ODYSSEY, a blog about how moving a lot when I was younger has affected my perspective on the idea of “everything happens for a reason.” I spent a lot of time outlining this piece and revising it from the rough draft I built from that and am proud of the product that yielded. However, in retrospect I wish I had made my stance more clear throughout my piece rather than allowing my introduction and conclusion to be the only places for that to shine through.
Media's mental health
The idea of mental health representation and the stigma surrounding it in general is something I’ve been passionate about for a while, so I enjoyed getting to write an editorial on it. I was initially going to write solely about the impact of the stigma surrounding mental health, but realized that bringing in the aspect of the media’s representation and stigmatization of it added a lot more relevance to students.
Letter From the Editor
Before jumping into my first draft of this story, an editorial on the growth of my district’s Board of Education, I did as much research as possible, including looking at past articles about the BOE and watching meetings from the past year and a half. It wasn’t until I had interviewed a past board member, however, that I really honed in on my angle. With her perspective on the BOE 20 years ago combined with an interview with the current board president, I was finally able to produce a draft I was happy with.
My Word vs. Yours: TikTok ban
The writing of this story, an editorial on the incoming TikTok ban, came surprisingly easy to me and I’m proud of how I got the message across. I struggled a bit trying to make my quotes from a neuropsychology professor at the University of Georgia fit, as I had to find a way to give readers enough context to understand his scientific explanations, but eventually found a way to do so without making it extremely long or less engaging.
My Word vs. Yours: Book adaptations
As a longtime bookworm, arguing against book-to-movie adaptations was a lot of fun. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to bring in a real-world example to get my point across. Thus, I structured the story around that example, using a quote from a film teacher at my school and my opinions to share my side of the debate.
Tough it out
This was a blog I wrote about my experiences with various athletic activities as a child and what I learned from sticking with them, despite my quite obvious lack of skill. I had a lot of fun writing this piece as it allowed me to reflect on some of my not-great experiences with sports in a different, and almost humorous, way.