About Me

The day I turned 13, I received a gift from my parents I still treasure today. My mom brought me, the complaining teenager I had recently become, on never-ending errands after school. Unbeknownst to me, my dad was home building me brand new bookcases, and the errands served as an excuse to stall me from returning home early. My eventual reaction to bookcases was pure joy. No longer would I be forced to stack my hundreds of books in corners or closets. I had beautiful shelves to display my prized possessions.

I have always had a passion for reading and writing, but journalism unexpectedly snuck up on me. I always assumed I would grow up, publish novels and poetry collections and live my life writing comfortably from my home. But that thought came before I first encountered my high school’s journalism teacher, a man notorious for his ability to talk longer than many deemed possible. During course registration at the end of freshman year, I eagerly signed up for creative writing, excited to finally choose an elective. Later that week, the journalism teacher appeared in my English class to give a presentation, encouraging us to take journalism despite its lack of popularity. After talking for three times longer than promised, something about his passion for the subject struck me. Although I had no idea why, I knew I belonged in his class. Something clicked into place. After a quick scheduled meeting with my counselor, I changed my elective to journalism without pausing to second-guess myself. I could have never been prepared for the next school year.

My journalism class sophomore year consisted of seven shy students with zero experience. Combined with our teacher's animated personality, my class faced numerous challenges and setbacks filled with the stress that comes with a journalist’s first stories. Despite everything, I fell in love with journalism. I joined the class as an incredibly shy, mediocre writer with minimal confidence, but somewhere during that course, everything turned around. Journalism has gifted me more than I could have imagined, and it has pushed me to pursue it as a life-long journey.

After journalism forcibly shoved me out of my comfort zone, I could not be more grateful. Journalism gives me firsthand experience to lives of countless individuals I write about, allows me to interact with new and interesting people every day, and gives me the honor to share untold stories with the world. I finally feel like I have a passion. With journalism, I experience everything from heart-wrenching disasters to life-long friendships. I share stories not found anywhere on my beautiful bookshelves. I interact with people I never would have met sitting at home writing poetry. I tell real-life stories instead of fiction. With journalism, I live a thousand passionate, meaningful lives.

Now that I'm in college, I'm reminded every single day how passionate I am about journalism: I get excited about city council meetings, I look forward to every single interview, I stay up late into the night writing just for the joy of it and I constantly look for my next biggest writing project. Writing for Voice of OC has only fueled my passion as my content extends from writing about my university to Orange County as a whole.

Journalism changed my life, but because of it, I get to alter other people's stories.

For that, I'm not only grateful, but overwhelmingly excited about what's to come.