Kelly Craig's Journalism Story

I needed to write a piece about how I got into journalism and decided to share it:

“I know I didn’t want to work nine to five, and that’s why I became a pilot.”  Okay, so I knew I wasn’t about to follow in my father’s footsteps and go to aviation school but avoiding a boring office job sounded great.  I want to be out in the world, not constantly under florescent lights walking on outdated carpet, I thought although I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about avoiding the cubical.

When I was in high school, I took an AP psychology course were we learned how looking at activities we were interesting in during the developmental ages of six and nine can be a glimpse into our future careers.  This is because at this point, a child will start to express their interests purely as they have not yet felt much world influence yet.  I thought back to what I was doing around that age and was hit with a flashback.

Pen and small Lisa Frank flip pad in hand, I snuck around the house looking for interesting stories.  My brother John forgot to bring his backpack to school today.  Mom had to drive it to him.  Dad is fixing the playhouse outside.  I interviewed who ever was making dinner.  After gathering facts, I ran up to my room with a copy of the local newspaper The Asbury Park Press.  I broke out the crayons and sliced off a huge chunk of fax paper and get to work on layout.  I scribbled Kelly Craig Park Press on the top and decided to mimic the newspaper’s layout complete with a drawn picture.  I made up (poorly made) word searches and crosswords.  I clearly remember being unsure of why all the profiles of people in the newspaper were of people who have just died in the section I was holding.  I decided to do profiles of my friends and pets instead.

Unfortunately, the Kelly Craig Park Press didn’t have too great a readership, but the archives can still be found in a special folder in Freehold, New Jersey.  About a decade later, I realized how an actual local newspaper ran at my first internship with North and South Brunswick Sentinel.  Reality hit when I walked into the offices seeing the cubicles and overhead lights but at least the carpet wasn’t from the ‘70s as I had pictured.  I let out a sigh as editor explained how I was free to write articles from my personal computer instead of using the office ones. 

I did end up spending some time in the offices, which was better than expected.  I spent most of the internship going to town events interviewing locals and experts and going to the nearest coffee shop to write up the pieces.  Although I didn’t love each topic, I knew that this was for me.

Throughout my academic career, I have spent 8 months away from Ramapo College of New Jersey, the school I will receive a Bachelor’s degree in communications journalism and minor in international studies.  I spent one semester at Florence University of the Arts and one at California State University of Monterey Bay.  I have one more semester to go which will be spent in California.  Although I neglected to follow my dad’s advice in becoming a pilot, I was intrigued by travel.  The studying abroad and the National Student Exchange programs were available at my college, and I knew I would regret not exploiting the opportunities.

Continuing to gain experience in journalism, I took a path other than taking formal internships.  In between eating gelato, sipping espresso and exploring cities, I was sure to leave getting published somewhere, anywhere.  I ended up with an article in Blending Magazine, a student run paper.  On my next trip I was sure to more actively work toward building a portfolio and ended up doing some editing work for Monterey’s Travel Host Magazine and taking two virtual internships at eCampus and Dallas Flow Magazine, which I am excited to continue throughout the summer.

As the days to May 15 wind-down, I have become more and more anxious about my Group Leadership Application sitting in the office of The Experiment in International Living to be considered for a summer 2012 program.  Although it’s a long shot, I hope to travel abroad with EIL as I continue the virtual internships.  Even if it’s only for a few weeks, I want to be out in the world, not constantly under florescent lights walking on outdated carpet.