A Short Bio, or: "Why I'm a Journalism Student"

By 2012 I was back at my first college, Windward Community College. I had just spent a little over a year living on an Army base in Germany with my mother and step-father. Back at school, I didn't know quite what to do.

I returned to college because I had to- in Germany I was lonely and depressed, but I could go back home to Hawaii earlier than my parents if I returned to school. So I did.

My plan? Continue working towards a plain old associates in arts degree. My drive? Almost non-existent. The only thing pushing me to wake up in the morning and go in to classes was that I didn't want the horror story of "flipping burgers for life" to come true (I'm sure every college student who has told their family they're considering dropping out has heard that story at some point in time). So I took some random classes and just so happened to change my life in the process.

In 6th grade we wrote short stories and drew pictures in a cool little bound book- except, I didn't finish my story in time. Mostly because it was actually a novel. I'd written about a whole sci-fi world and I was nowhere near being done in time to turn it in (I ended up writing short story about a lost kitten instead). After that I decided I was going to be a novelist. Similarly, after my first journalism class, I made a big decision: I was going to be a journalist.

I got to write, design and take photos. It required creativity as well as a strict adherence to guidelines that suited the way my mind worked and felt comfortable and fun. I loved it.

For three semesters I worked on my school paper and my associates degree, until finally I thought I might as well just move on to a four year school and study journalism for real. Windward Community College only offered two journalism classes, and it wasn't enough for me. After a hectic, strange summer in which I moved in with my grandmother in Rhode Island and was a cat-sitter for my parents, I applied to Central Washington University (CWU).

I got in and moved to Washington, a place I'd only been to about three or four times in my life. I'd actually stopped in Ellensburg, briefly, during a road trip from Montana to Seattle. I didn't remember that when I first arrived in Ellensburg and looked around, but it made me laugh later. I started taking classes to get into the journalism degree as soon as possible, but I was lonely those first few weeks. I was lucky enough to have met some cosplayers who attended CWU on the Cosplay.com forums, but we didn't meet often and I didn't know anyone else at the school. Nerdiness saved me yet again. I went to a meeting for the board gaming club "GEEC" and found friends there that have lasted me my entire time here so far (I'm now the vice president of the club with those friends I made).

Despite my ups and downs in the journalism program, (stressful classes and late nights as the scene editor of the school paper had me considering dropping out of school, among other things) I've always come back to that simple enjoyment of writing. It still feels a little like a dream to be writing like this. As a child I never thought I'd be a journalist, but I always hoped to be writing. And here I am, following both my childhood and adult dreams. It's a wonderful feeling.