The first thing that most people ask me when I tell them that I write for my college newspaper is what my major is. When I tell them that I am a sport and exercise science major, they are shocked.
You mean there are people who aren’t journalism or communications majors who actually enjoy writing?
While writing is not something I have a passion to do for the rest of my life, I truly enjoy it.
My earliest memory of starting to pick up an interest in writing was when I was about 13 or 14 in junior high school.
I tried my hand at writing short stories for an online reading website for a while. I thought they were just fantastic but in reality, there weren’t very good at all.
However, I truly started to get into writing during my 10th grade English class.
We had to do several different writing projects and on one of them my teacher told me she thought I really did a good job. This positive feedback made me realize that maybe this was something that I could pick up as a hobby and be pretty good at it.
I fiddled with writing some poetry — and enjoyed it — and still dabbled in short stories and found they just weren’t my thing.
My school didn’t have a paper I could join but this newfound interest for writing certainly came in handy when trying to write papers for school.
When I arrived at Gannon in August and found out that there was a school paper my interest was immediately drawn. I knew it was something that I wanted to get involved in on campus.
The thing that I love about writing is that it is so easy to just get carried away in.
When I write I find my fingers getting carried away on the keys, just typing whatever goes through my mind. Writing is fun, and spontaneous, and expansive.
Writing allows you to be able to discover new things and even sometimes acquire a whole new perspective on something. I love that you can write about anything that you could possibly want to.
Just look at Gannon’s own newspaper. We have a sports section, a music section, a section or article for anything that may pique one’s interest. I love writing because it is beautiful and fluid.
Although it may take some time to get just the right words sometimes, when a writer finally gets that perfect combination it is magical.
The words just flow together and fit. It’s like how the lyrics and the music of a song just fit.
This is why I write. I write for that feeling of fitting words together like a puzzle to create something beautiful.
However, for me, writing isn’t a career, it’s just a thing that I enjoy doing for now. For some people, it is a career — and I love that — but that person is not me.
While writing isn’t something I want to pursue a lifelong career in, it’s not something I am ready to let go quite yet.
The love for words and new opportunities and discoveries, that is why I write for The Gannon Knight.
KATHRYN HAMILTON
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