This year has been interesting for me.

I’ll keep this short and concise, but COVID really does affect the writing process- positively and negatively. The reality of the situation was blunt, schools were closed, people were either out of job or working from home, and isolation became a societal norm. Writing about your everyday news was almost bleak and depressing due to news headlines often containing misfortune and unfortunate events, so I looked towards entertainment more. I focused on the creativity of others, to spark my own while sharing it on this platform.

COVID set up a bittersweet setting for most. I for one, found there to be positive and negative aspects in it regarding the writing process. With my schedule being far less hectic than it was before, I could spend more time thoroughly researching possible subjects of interest. Stress was low, time was abundant because I worked from home and 2020 was quite an active year for the headlines.

The negatives of this would be the content of those headlines, even with the abundance of time I had, it was hard to cover current events of 2020 without the information being somewhat grim. Interviews for some subjects were close to impossible seeing as that quarantine was in full effect at the time, so there was a level of stress in finding someone to fit the bill.

Overall this year was interesting, and a challenge to say the least, but it was a learning experience. A classmate in the same class period as I has mentioned that during her time as a journalist, she used this time to improve as a writer by using earlier pieces as reference to what she could do better. Improvement was a major effort and one that I still strive to work on, my journey as a journalist was one of improvement.