I almost never became a journalist.
The first time I attended a Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association (KIPA) Conference was the summer before my second year at Eastern Kentucky University in 2017.
I had just been hired on as the opinion’s editor at The Eastern Progress, which is the student media outlet at EKU.
KIPA is essentially a Kentucky Press Association Conference for college students. They don’t have a fancy awards banquet at the end, but they do have sessions where you can learn about different areas or topics of interest in journalism.
I remember being completely and utterly overwhelmed after my first KIPA session.
The first session I remember attending was a man who kept talking about ‘enterprise’ stories.
I had no clue what those were. Honestly, I had no concept of what the different story types were in journalism, so it wasn’t like I could even piece together a definition using context clues.
That first KIPA conference almost did me in. I was so panicked internally that I almost backed out of a career in journalism right then and there.
For those of you who don’t know how I got into journalism, I essentially chose the career on a whim.
I had a lot of college credits from high school, and I needed to know what major I wanted before going to college since I didn’t have time to explore different paths while taking general education courses.
The summer before I left for EKU, I randomly chose journalism as my major because people had told me I was good at writing, which I guess makes sense because my mom is an English teacher.
I had scored well on advanced placement written exams in high school, so it seemed like a logical choice when I needed to decide on a college major.
That first year at EKU I HATED journalism, but alas, I decided to apply for a position at The Eastern Progress at the end of my first year.
I figured, ‘let me see what a newsroom is like, and then if I still hate it, I can at least say I gave it a shot.’
When I attended the KIPA conference, I had still not been in the newsroom working on stories or doing layout, so when I found myself lost and confused at the conference, I thought then and there, ‘Welp … this isn’t going to end well.’
I left that conference wearing a fake smile that made my cheeks hurt and dread for the impending doom that was surely to be my next semester.
You could say that I was pleasantly surprised when I finally stepped into the newsroom at The Eastern Progress and everything clicked.
I fell in love with journalism, and each semester I learned more and grew into the writer I am today.
Ironically, my first award at the professional Kentucky Press Association Conference was for Best Enterprise or Analytical story in 2018.
About a year and a half after that first KIPA conference, I attended the professional conference and won an award in a category that I couldn’t even define when I first started my journey to becoming a journalist.
Last Friday, I attended my third Kentucky KPA conference, and it was my first time attending as a professional journalist.
I was so blessed and honored to bring home five first place awards, but I think the award that is the most special is the new first place best enterprise story plaque that I now have hanging on the wall in my office.
It has finally come full circle. From my first KIPA conference to my first professional KPA conference, I have gone from being so overwhelmed that I wanted to quit to loving it so much I can’t see myself doing anything else.
