Sometimes it’s hard for people to use words, to express their feelings and emotions. Most of us keep our true thoughts and feelings locked in a box inside our heads. I unlock my box by writing. My thoughts flow around in my mind. When I sit down and write them out, they travel through my mind all the way down to my fingertips and I type them out. When I do this, everything I’m thinking of makes more sense to me than it did before. It’s almost therapeutic. I have always enjoyed writing. In grade school, my favorite class was always English-writing short stories and letters to my mom convincing her to buy me a bunny or get another dog. In middle school, we did projects on writers and reviews on the books we were reading. As I’ve progressed in school, writing has gotten less personal and more about the facts. Essays and projects. This is exactly why I joined Tenderfoot: to keep the personal and therapeutic part of writing, to put my thoughts into words. 

Writing for a newspaper is different from writing your own story. There are specific steps we have to take to get an article published. We interview, transcribe and write and rewrite articles until they are ready for publication. Something new for me was having other people edit your writing. At first you’re discouraged, but the more you edit your paper the better it gets and I always end up loving the final result. 

In writing for the newspaper, I have been able to connect with my family in a different way. Since all my extended family live out of state, it’s nice for them to be able to see my stories on the website. I get texts from them saying they read it and what they liked about it. When my grandpa read my column about music he said that he got to know my feelings about music and how I connected with it. It’s great having something to talk about when I go to visit. My articles and columns provide insight on topics and subjects I’m interested in. It opens doors for conversation that we might not otherwise have had. Writing takes many different forms. For me it not only has a place in my academic life, but my personal as well. It helps me connect with family and friends. It provides a safe place for me to express my thoughts with no judgment. Tenderfoot has helped me to discover a new form of writing that I love just as much as the others.