How one book series ignited a lifelong passion for writing and set me on the path to becoming a journalist
I often wonder what led me to this exact moment in my life. This exciting new place I call home, the people I call my friends and the community I surround myself with are the result of a series of choices and mistakes that have brought me here to Mizzou. I am currently in my first year here, double-majoring in journalism and political science. I can recognize and find comfort in the realization that every single choice I made brought me here, in some way or another.
Reading was a fundamental part of my childhood, and something I always found great joy in. Whether it was a long chapter book or something quick and easy, you could almost always find me nestled up with a good book, finding a new world to explore. One of my favorites, though, was the world of “Dork Diaries,” by Rachel Renee Russell and all the stories throughout that series. From the first book I read, I was hooked and knew I had found a real winner.
Soon, I was eight books deep and basing my own diary writing style off the voice of Rachel Renee Russell in my Justice light-up diary, and looking at life as though I was Nikki Maxwell, Dork Diaries’ main character. I learned pretty quickly that I am not Nikki Maxwell and my life was my own, so I started writing other things. I wrote short stories about my classmates and me and plays about dreams that I had. No matter what it happened to be, I was always writing something.
Getting older and going to middle school, I saw everyone around me finding their “thing.” My “thing” presented itself through my communications and multimedia class, also known as newspaper and broadcast. There, I wrote some more and was the anchor of that semester’s broadcast show. I knew I had found something I enjoyed. The next year, I was in yearbook and got to continue to flex that writing muscle, while also venturing a little bit into graphic design. Yet again, I found a class I loved.
Fast forward to high school, I spent a total of three years on the yearbook staff and one year as the Co-Editor-In-Chief. While writing was not the discipline I was primarily focused on, I still kept feeling like this journalism thing could become something I did for the rest of my life, whether it be designing, photography or social media.
I took a year before I came to Mizzou and finished my associate’s degree at community college. Spending a year there solidified my love of journalism, and it’s what pushed me to turn towards the University of Missouri to pursue my bachelor’s degree.
All these decisions, no matter how big or small, kept me on a not entirely straightforward, but steady path to get where I am. Now, was picking up “Dork Diaries” and falling in love with the series the reason I ended up here today?
OK, OK, choosing to read “Dork Diaries” when I was in second or third grade is not the reason I chose my major or the reason I am at Mizzou, but it was a first step on my path to getting here, and I still consider it significant. One of the many choices I made that brought me to now. Who knows where I might be had I not read my first “Dork Diaries” book? And so here I am, 12-ish years later, not totally sure what the future holds, but 100 percent certain I can attribute “Dork Diaries” as being one small part of an ever-growing journey.