Upon receiving the news that The Daily Iowan would take me as an arts reporter, I felt both excited and confused.

This was because I had originally gone ham on my cover letter, name-dropping graphic design softwares in the hopes of becoming a photojournalist, hoping to refine my picture-taking skills.

If I were to exaggerate, I would also add “and gain some real-life experience,” but I would be lying. I simply wanted to take a ton of pictures and have fun.

I had never dabbled in journalism before, as I preferred writing fiction stories and wanted to become an author from the start. To every writer out there who hasn’t gone viral at some point, it was too much to ask for.

I wanted to find a job before the fall semester started. Shortly after I got my new school email, an alert from the DI popped up on the top of my feed saying they were in need of new reporters in all fields alongside photojournalists.

My desire to take more photos outweighed the need for a job search. I quickly made a cover letter on Canva and sent it in, not expecting anything more to come from it. I knew the job market was a nightmare to begin with.

To my surprise, I got an email from my future arts editors, Stella Shipman and Avi Lapchick, asking to set up a time for a Zoom interview. Even though it had so many technical difficulties that caused me to relocate multiple times, I came out of it newly employed — and very grateful.

I found it interesting that I was more excited to be an arts reporter than a photographer, which was what I first applied for. At that moment, I wondered if maybe the position had aligned with me more than I thought it would.

Working at the DI had pulled me out of my comfort zone one time after another, but I felt like it was for the better. The arts have been a huge part of my life ever since childhood. I got to meet so many people that did cool things, and having the privilege to tell their stories had been a wonderful experience.

I remembered how two of my sources had given me very excited and thankful texts the morning their article got published. For a second, their reactions made me forget about all the late nights spent writing, carefully piecing together their story a little at a time.

Being in a collaborative environment made me realize how much time, effort, and heart went into essentially one piece of paper — alongside the web stories of course — every Wednesday, only for it to be done all over again for next week’s edition.

A small thing that stuck with me was how supportive my editors were with my pieces. I remember all of the feedback would be tied up with a cheerful comment, encouraging me to keep up the good work. For a novice in this field, those meant a lot.

Something that I continued to wrestle with throughout each article was time.

If I were to do any of my works over again, I would have finished them two or three days before and saved myself and my editors from rushing. I humbly apologize to my current Arts Editor, Charlie Hickman, as he knows this
firsthand. Sorry, Charles.

I also want to wish future Arts Editor Riley Dunn the best, and I hope that she continues to be bright and uplifting as she was when we were both in YA Fiction class , and later got to know each other in the pitch meeting room.

As graduation nears and I look back on all of the stories I got to tell, I felt like I had grown a deeper appreciation for the arts.

Through each piece of work, I was led back to myself in more ways than one.