Sweat dripping down the back of my neck, holding my breath, one eye closed, the other pressed firmly against my viewfinder, hands trembling, the silence deafening, the tingling in my toes as my feet began to go numb. 

 

The offensive line bent down into position as the very last play of the game, the one that would determine the outcome of the last football game of my senior year began to commence. And in eight simple seconds, the crowd went from that of one filled with anxiety to that of one filled with outrageous laughter and joy. Framing my last shot of the night, and releasing my shutter button. 

 

Capturing this moment of history. 

 

That's when I knew I made the right decision. 

 

I never set out to be a journalist, it was never something on the top of a list or something that I had circled and highlighted as my number one goal. Journalism found me and saved me when I needed it most. 

 

For as long as I can remember I have had a camera in my hands, I used to tell people I was changing the world one picture at a time and even though I didn’t realize it then that is exactly what I hope I can do from now on. I’ve always thought that the world seemed to just look a little bit clearer through the lens of my camera, but like I said that’s never what my goal was. I started in journalism in a photojournalism class that was just a filler in my schedule until I could go back to the band hall. I loved the photography aspect, and it appeared I was good at it so it was an easy A. However, as time went on I started to develop a love for not only photography but also the power my photographs had. I could tell the story of a moment filled with emotion just from one snap of my camera and that was something that I soon realized was an incredibly important power to have in our world. 

 

I was committed to the band though; marching, performing, dancing, it all was so exhilarating and fulfilling, that is until it wasn’t. In the winter season of my freshman year at a winter guard rehearsal, I did the last run-through of the night and that’s where it went downhill. I remember standing in our starting positions thinking “last time, best time” a motto my previous band director had hammered into my head. The run was going great, no dropped equipment, no missing steps, and everything was coming to a nice end to the rehearsal. Then as the dance line began to implement a new trick we had learned that night, things began to turn sour. Sliding in a jazz split to the ground and then doing a cartwheel on our elbows my arm slipped on the tarp floor falling into an over-extended split. One that when not prepared for can be detrimental to a dancer. I had torn multiple ligaments in my hips and my labrum, the tissue that covers your hip joint so that your bones don't grind against each other. 

 

After struggling through my COVID year and being injured where they deemed my surgery optional I decided to march all of my sophomore marching season injured spending every day in excruciating pain, and then it got to the point where that no longer was an option. After my surgery they told me I would never be allowed to be in the marching band again, my hips just didn't have the mobility that they once did. With that my world was turned upside down, I didn’t know what to do with my life anymore it felt like everything that mattered to me had suddenly been taken away from me. After a few months of struggling with this feeling, all the while still taking photography classes, I began to ask Ms. Taylor Mersmann for more photo opportunities. 

 

As my love for the band faded away my love for photography grew, and I was always hungering for the next assignment, event, etc… Then an opportunity arose, and because the current yearbook staff was so small they were asking for freelancers to take on certain pages and write feature stories. I had never written anything like that before but I thought I might as well. Writing a feature story became my favorite thing. I loved getting to tell someone's story not only through my lens but also through writing. I loved that I got to write from a factual standpoint but also include opinions from people that the piece was about. 

 

From then on I knew that I wanted to be a journalist, not just a photographer. So I started going to every Rock Hill Media club meeting, asking for more opportunities to help with the yearbook and going to events to photograph and interview people. That of which was all in my sophomore year. Through that year I found my place in the world of journalism, and I knew that’s where I wanted to be. I struggled along the way and had to learn things like how to write captions the right way or the difference between opinion writing and factual writing but I never got discouraged. I wanted to do this so it was what I was going to do no matter what. 

 

In my junior year, I joined Blue Hawk Yearbook and due to my dedication to the media club and my tenacity as a journalism student, I was able to earn a position on the editorial board. 

 

Junior year was hard, harder than expected. You can ask anyone about Rock Hill’s yearbook in 2022 and they will tell you, it was awful. We were always behind and struggling to catch up, we had over half a staff that did not want to be there, and we had a group of leaders that were still learning how to be leaders themselves. The book came out great once it finally did come out but in production, we were at each other's throats. Junior year made me question why I wanted to do this. It made me wonder what was the purpose if I wasn’t having fun. What I decided was that I couldn't let the faults of team building outplay those of the core of journalism which is storytelling. Even though my junior year was challenging between the rigor of my academics and the personal hell that was our 2022 yearbook, Seen & Heard, I never lost my hunger for journalism and so I kept going. 

 

Following that, in my senior year, I have worked hard to show up every day and hold myself and others on my staff accountable. I am always in the yearbook room learning how we can be better and how I can be a better leader for my team. At the end of the day, a yearbook class isn’t for everyone, it’s hard and sometimes it sucks but this is the best place in the world to be. 

 

So when I get to see people's faces when I take a game-winning picture of them or when they read the theme copy for the yearbook and say things like “OMG! That's literally what this year felt like.” That's when I know, I made the right choice.