I grew up in Bowling Green, Missouri where our weekly paper, the Bowling Green Times, came out every Thursday. Ever since I was little, I remember having access to our subscription on Saturday morning — as soon as mom was finished reading it.

     Sometimes my activities were featured in the pages and I remember seeing a picture of me in little league baseball blowing a huge Double Bubble Gum bubble when I was supposed to be playing right field.

     I eventually befriended the editor in high school when he covered my prep sports. He answered my questions about his job and the field.

     As a senior at the University of Missouri, I have had the privilege of working as a beat reporter for the Columbia Missourian, a community newspaper in central Missouri. I was assigned to the high school softball beat and become the newsroom expert on prep softball. This spring I have been covering the Missouri Baseball beat. It is a privilege to cover a competitive team in the best baseball conference in the NCAA.

     Along with my time at the Missourian, I have produced works for a local magazine, Vox, as well as freelanced pieces for Nieman Storyboard and the Columbia Daily Tribune. I work on deadline several times a week and I strive to add feature stories and enterprise pieces to my portfolio as well.

     One such story that sticks out to me was a profile that I did for Nieman on a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Early in the pandemic every professional sports league either halted or delayed their seasons. I was curious how a sports columnist stayed busy and how he kept producing content without any sports. Well, it turns out Ben had some experiences to draw on. He was a fascinating interview and it is awesome to have folks in the field who take the time to impart some wisdom on the next generation.

     Ben had a lot of good advice for me as a young reporter, but the idea that has stuck with me the most was when he leaned forward and told me that complacency was the worst thing for a journalist. He told me to seize every story — to jump on them like a 3-1 fastball down the middle of the plate. Ben’s best stories, he said, were not ones that he let come to him, but instead, were stories that he pursued.

     I have found the same thing in my experience. Clips where I have sat back and waited for do not hit half as hard as ones that I attack. I look forward to attacking stories in my career as a reporter.

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