Always learning, always growing

Hello, everybody! My name is Aldo Suarez and I am one of the editors in Journalism this year.

I will be honest. When I took the journalism class last year during my sophomore year, I didn’t know what to expect. I had never taken the class before so it was all new to me: writing stories, interviewing people, and more.

As my sophomore year progressed, every story I wrote had its ups and downs. They were full of mistakes and my adviser, Ms. Lynne Herring, would let me know. It got frustrating because I knew I must have been doing something wrong but I would get better. So I continued, I continued working every day in and out of the class with the stories, and with mistakes came experience.

When sophomore year was coming to an end, Ms. Herring offered me an editor position, but I was unsure whether or not to accept. I asked my friends what they thought and they all told me to do it. After a lot of back and forth, I filled out the application and submitted, and guess what? I became an editor!

I am not 100% sure if I want to continue with journalism in the future since I am also an artist and plan to go to Cogswell College in Silicon Valley and, eventually to a university in London for Art. However, I am so thankful for all the opportunities presented to me with Journalism since I have been able to write better, improving my writing and communication skills. I have also gotten to interact with a lot of people, getting a glimpse of their lives through writing.

I see Journalism as a benefit in the way that, not only do you improve your writing and communication skills, but you also learn how to be creative with your writing and see how you can express yourself in a fun way.

I tent to add WAY too much information in my stories because I like to do my research, and I struggle with getting straight to the point, but these are areas I work on constantly, and I’m getting better over time and through practice.

I would definitely encourage you to join journalism, even if you don’t feel drawn to it. At first you might feel like it’s the end of the world or there is a lot of work to be done, but this isn’t necessarily true. You can write stories, talk to people, and express yourself in ways you might have never thought you could do. So, if you simply want to write your thoughts in the form of stories and have fun while doing it, then join Journalism.

I want to thank Ms. Herring for allowing me to become an editor in the first place since she has faith in me and always pushes me to be better with every edit and writing. I make a lot of mistakes but she is always showing me where I could improve and I take that feedback and improve. Without her I would not have been able to talk to new people, and get to experience the way of expressing myself with writing. So, if anyone gets the chance to see Ms. Herring in a class, for journalism, or in the halls, tell her Thank You because, without her, none of this would be possible, The Armijo Signal wouldn’t exist and the stories we write and edit would have no audience.