I had been hesitant to go up to certain editors and ask for something to do when I was not doing obituaries or what not until last week. I went up to Ken at the city-desk and let him know I was free to do anything if he needed me to go investigate or take pictures. He soon gave me a story to investigate. I was sent out to two different locations to gather quotes and opinions of fellow islanders about the increased tobacco tax hitting New York City.

That was an exciting and worrisome day for me because it was my first real story, and the deadline was set for the end of my 6 p.m. shift. It was a struggle, I learned firsthand that not all people are willing to talk to the newspaper, especially about topics such as cigarettes. I was turned down a lot but I got the information i needed and proceeded back to the newsroom where I transcribed my notes and wrote the story.
By the time I was done and reading it over, an editor asked me to e-mail him what I had because he wanted to put it on S.I. Live. My worries soon diminished and excitement took over, I just thought “Wow, it’s going to be online with my byline on it.” Shortly after that, Ken sent me a message telling me that it was the potential lead story for the next days paper and to send it to the page 1 basket when I was finished, I was over-the-top excited at that point.

My story that I wrote and worked so hard for was indeed one of the lead stories in the next days paper, and online to boot. The problem though was that when I read the story the next day, it wasn’t entirely my work. The night editor, I came to find out, changed a lot of my story. It was my work, but switched around, grafs removed, words and terms added that were not my style of writing.

As disappointing as that was for me, I now know that it happens to everyone and not to take it personal. This happened again with my 2nd story, but this time I expected it. Regardless, my name was in the paper covering a story I wrote. It was one of the coolest feelings and biggest accomplishments of my career thus far. The future looks bright and I plan on keeping my open mind and pursuing anything that comes my way!

The day; June 24, 2010. First byline!