February = The Best Month at Deseret News!

February was the best month for me so far at Deseret News. Here's why:

First reason.... I wrote about two story ideas I came up with on my own! My biggest challenge working here is finding story ideas... I work with a girl who find like 5 neat ideas every single day, and I maybe find 5 every week! She definitely has a talent for finding stories. But I'm improving :) One  of the stories was on the 'Next Great Baker' finalist who was LDS (I got to interview her too and that was fun!) and the other about the basketball player with a developmental disability I mentioned in my last blog post. Both of these stories received a lot of views online which makes me feel even better about myself! The basketball one was even put on the homepage, and in the rotater as the very first story people see! It's a pretty big deal for me for my story to be the top story on the homepage. I even took a screenshot of it for proof:

Oh and here's my Next Great Baker story that made it to the home rotater earlier this month as well in the #3 spot:

Second reason... one of my stories about the pros and cons of giving your teen a cell phone made it to the national edition of the Deseret News Newspaper! I told my parents to watch for my story in their mailbox.

Third reason... My online stories have been viewed 100,000 times! Such an honor!

I have accomplished a lot while working for Deseret News. My writing skills are much better than they were in October... which they better be after writing 60+ stories! Although I don't feel I'm meant to be a journalist for the rest of my life, a lot of jobs I've applied for require you have "excellent writing skills." Not "good" or "great"... "EXCELLENT." Having Deseret News on my resume has definitely helped me get interviews that I otherwise wouldn't have. I have no idea if I will be able to find a job in the next month, which scares me because it's hard not having a set plan! But working for Deseret News has been such a blessing! I will miss the people and the environment found only here.

Have a great weekend! Can you believe it's March? I keep hoping for flowers to magically bloom and the sun to constantly shine... But I won't hold my breath for that to happen anytime soon!