by Maddie Parise
I’ve always loved to write. From a young age I dreamed of being (amongst several other things) an author. I was raised on the “Junie B. Jones” book series and wanted more than anything to be the next Barbara Park. I was so excited in the third grade when we added the ‘blank book project’ to the elementary school curriculum. Being presented with an empty book with only the instruction being “fill it” was so exciting. The issue with my writing however, is that I can’t for the life of me write a compelling story. All of my blank book creations focused on the same themes over and over. I couldn’t think of fantasy lands or magic powers. I always ended up writing about some orphan girl who ended up in jail- who knows why I was so fascinated by that subject, I’m just glad none of my teachers filed a report about me.
I eventually abandoned my dream of being a writer by high school, it was a realistic conclusion after the repetitive stories I wrote never received more positive feedback than “Wow, very interesting… How are you doing?” I continued to excel in my English and Creative Writing courses however. I can write a mean essay and bullsh*t my way through a poem analysis like no other. When my teachers assigned papers I still got that rush of excitement, a blue book is the equivalent of a big kid’s blank book, right? It wasn’t until Senior year that I realized there is a niche for non fiction writing that was pretty accessible to me.
I took “Intro to Journalism” my first semester of my last year of high school to fill an open credit. My teacher was eccentric to say the absolute least. He was able to channel my passion for writing into pure joy when reporting and designing for our school’s paper, The Northern Light. He taught me about font congruency, the creative opportunities in content and construction of a publication and most importantly, that “dashes are sexy.” My journalism class became my family of misfits, finally I’d met people who got just as excited as me over an empty piece of paper.
When high school ended I was distraught. Actually, let me phrase that better: I was distraught when my work with The Northern Light ended. I didn’t think there was any way up from where I’d just been. I was a part of something great, then it ended, so I figured that was that. I turned out to be very wrong about that.
When I arrived as a freshman at Colorado Mesa University, I spent the first week or two trying to decipher which end was up, but after that I took a leap of faith. I messaged the Facebook page with the same name as the one on the newspapers lying around campus.
“Hey! My name is Maddie and I worked on my high school’s newspaper back home. I was wondering how I can get involved with the Criterion? If you could give me some information on how staffing works or when I could come in to learn more that would be great! Thanks so much.”
A few hours later I recieved my life changing response:
“Hi! We have staff meetings at 8:00 pm every Monday in the University Center, room 211 (The Crite office, next to Student Life), and we’d love to have you come by! Each week we assign stories and features for the next issue of the paper, anyone is welcome, and you can pick up any stories or photography assignments that interest you! Thanks a bunch, hope to see you at a meeting!!”
From my very first meeting with The Crite I’ve been hooked. I’ve written over 30 articles for our publication, in addition to designing countless pages. Writing for The Crite was what convinced me to stay at CMU when I was considering transferring back home to Michigan for school. The Criterion also gave me the first and only job I’ve ever loved. After being promoted to Opinions Editor I have never felt more valued. I’ve learned that my talents and passions can actually earn me money, and that is so encouraging.
As I sit here in my office and write this story, I can’t help but feel grateful for everything I’ve experienced and learned since I fell into the journalism world. With each new week I start picking and pitching stories, I never grow tired of deadlines, the endless void of literary combinations and an empty Google Docs page. As I continue on in my career, my strongest hope is that I will never tire of these aspects and find a way to make my younger self proud, even without mentioning criminal orphans.
