Getting into College Activity #2: Newspaper

Every 2 months or so, The Day Times (the school newspaper) releases a new issue which is heavily followed by the student body (I wish). While our readership is not at the levels of The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, I feel as though we work twice as hard. This last issue was particularly stress-inducing, as my co-editor Andrew Smith and I struggled to make our initial deadlines and were left catching up to make the final cut. While I could discuss my poor time-management skills for blog post upon blog post, I would rather delve into the trials and tribulations of a sports editor.

The release of each new issue means a lot to me as a writer, editor, and leader. The work needed to produce interesting, innovative sports pages has resulted in many long nights at layout and overall stressful moments. On a daily basis, Andrew and I have a plethora of responsibilities to our section, whether it be enhancing the journalism skills of our writers or communicating with other sections to create a unified paper. Now that the Halloween Issue has been released, I will reader The Day Times from cover to cover, enjoying the “fruits” of the staff’s collective labor. I believe that it is important enjoy and celebrate the results of hard work. All too often (and especially at DCDS), students are constantly slaving away with school work, sports, or other extracurricular activities and fail to grasp the level of their achievements. We need to give ourselves a pat on the back every once in a while to survive the gauntlet known as Detroit Country Day. Take this newspaper issue for example, sports started of slow, but rallied our way back to produce what the newspaper club sponsor called “one of the best sports sections in a long time”; I think that is something to celebrate!

On a completely different note, I have and will continue to experience a tremendous amount of personal growth (that’s an IB learning outcome  ) as a result of newspaper. I am under pressure to meet deadlines and continue the legacy of a top notch sports section, responsibilities which emphasize both my strengths and my weaknesses. Through newspaper, I have come to understand my greatest weakness: TIME MANAGEMENT. As I have already evidenced in this post, time management is a central issue which I am constantly trying to combat. Although I understand that it is my single greatest roadblock from achieving higher levels of success, I have yet to alter or lessen this frustrating habit. I assume that poor self- discipline is the cause to this tragic flaw. As my AP World Lit teacher would say, I have experienced hamartia, but have yet to have an epiphany. I know that if I can correct this flaw over time, it would not only lead to much less stress, but an overall boost in performance.

I will keep my many blog followers (just one at the moment: props to Margery Gang) updated on my progress.