In high school, there are many challenges for students to face. A high school journalist faces all of the regular high school challenges and many more.

Being a journalist in high school, I have faced my fair share of struggles. The main struggle for me is deadlines. Meeting deadlines while dealing with homework and work outside of school is a lot for a teenager to handle. I have missed deadline more times than I care to admit,  and it affected me drastically. My readers expect my work to be published on time, and so does my teacher.

In late September, I wrote an article that wasn’t published on time. Not only was I upset that I disappointed my readers, I was also upset because I couldn’t get all the information I needed when intended. I asked several people for information, yet not a lot of people had information to give. Talking to Student Council, the Student Council adviser and the Leadership teacher helped a lot, but it was not enough. I still needed more information. I was running out of time and patience.  All I wanted to do was finish on time like I always do. My frustration and anger were building up because it seemed that nobody wanted to cooperate with me.

A few days after deadline had already passed, I finally finished it. Shortly after feeling accomplished, the guilt hit me. I was constantly overthinking about how my readers would react and wondering if they’d be as disappointed as I was. Before long I had a little over 200 views, which made the guilt go away and brought back my high self-esteem.

There have been countless times when I felt like I was not going to meet deadline, but in the long run I did. Meeting deadline is a big deal for me. Not only does it affect my readers, my confidence, and my grades, it also affect the pride I have in my writing.

Being a journalist while in high school and maintaining a job outside of school has been a struggle, but it taught me to fight to achieve my goals in life.