Earlier this week, I met a local college student for coffee. An aspiring journalist, she wanted to interview me about my own experience in the field for her senior capstone paper. Besides being extremely flattered that someone would want to interview me, I have to admit that the experience left me feeling pretty proud of how far I've come since I started my career as a part-time editorial assistant/office manager for Hagerstown magazine five years ago. My own path to becoming a journalist was different than most. I didn't go to journalism school for one, nor did I major in English when I attended Shepherd University. I majored in Spanish, thinking I'd eventually become a translator. After I earned my degree in 2009, I traveled to Valencia, Spain, and worked as an intern for a nonprofit organization for a few months in an effort to bolster my speaking skills-which even after nearly ten years of academic study were woefully lacking. During that trip I realized I neither had the verbal skills I needed nor the ...
