For two years, I stood outside D115, watching students gather behind huge desktops, editing photos, writing stories and holding cameras to check out. “Wait until senior year,” I told myself as I lingered outside the room. I had always known I would join The Sidekick, but I just wanted to make sure I had the time to fully commit — soon, that became my biggest regret.
I thought joining would help me find my voice and improve my writing, but it gave me so much more. The Sidekick taught me valuable life lessons through even the simplest tasks.
That is what sets The Sidekick apart from all the other organizations I have been a part of. All the life lessons and growth embedded in even the menial tasks have taught me many valuable lessons.
I’ll never forget our field trip to American Airlines Center in February. It was an exciting experience that was provided through The Sidekick and allowed me to get a glimpse of the professional world. We met their staff and asked them questions about their jobs, and as they answered, I found myself drawing unexpected parallels.
They used many of the same software programs we used. They relied on the same creative tools. That is when I realized the skills I was practicing in The Sidekick were not just for a high school newspaper; they were the same skills needed in the real world.
Even something as simple as interviewing someone for a story has completely changed how I communicate. I have started to better read people’s tone and body language, and I have learned how to make others feel at ease.
These skills have already helped me. The Sidekick has transformed this shy little girl into a person who is able to confidently ask questions and interact with lawyers at my job shadowing or a person who had the courage to go up to city council members and talk to them after a city council meeting.
The Sidekick has allowed me to step out of my little bubble of comfort and forced me to interact with people that I usually would have been too nervous to approach.
But being a journalist in D115 also means something deeper; it means being ethical, even when it’s difficult. It is so hard not to take the easy way out when everything goes wrong with the story you are working on, or it is so hard not to take the free food that gets offered when you are taking photos at a restaurant. But in The Sidekick, you have to learn to just push through and make the right choices to get your story published. These lessons will stick with me throughout my career.
The Sidekick teaches you how to be disciplined, respectful and honest — not just as a writer, but as a person. There are various structures in place for this very reason. The simple process of getting a story edited three different times has many steps that require a lot of discipline and tenacity.
In just one year, The Sidekick prepared me so much for the professional world.
The Sidekick is a place where high-quality work gets produced by people who are truly passionate about putting out the best work. These traits that just being in D115 instilled in many students are the reasons why we can often expect our adviser Chase Wofford to send a selfie holding up a peace sign, talking about The Sidekick’s awards.
I am so grateful to this amazing program and all it has done for me. I walked in as a simple high schooler, but I am leaving as a confident worker who is ready for the professional world.
My only regret is not joining sooner. I spent years waiting outside that door when I could have been growing, learning and creating from the moment I stepped in.
However, my biggest lesson is that sometimes the door you are afraid to walk through is the one that changes everything.
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