I wanted to be a teacher my entire life. 

When I first chose my classes after returning from E-Learning for two years, I immediately chose the education pathway with no hesitation. At that time, I thought my dream career was to be with children all day and watch them grow into amazing individuals. I wanted to make a change in my community and be as good a teacher as I had grown up with. 

On Day One of being on the education pathway, I immediately knew that there was no future for me there. I didn’t feel the passion, and it didn’t feel right to me, so I stopped taking the course. After coming to the realization that I was not cut out to be a teacher, I was disappointed, and at the time, I felt that I had lost my fire. But, I decided to persevere, because I knew that one day I’d find my forever passion, and I would know right away once I did find it. 

I met with my counselor, Steve Gordon, in hopes that he would have some ideas for me. I knew that I still wanted to be a leader in my community and make an impact on those around me, so I started doing research. I’ve always had a passion for writing, for taking pictures, and even for sports broadcasting. When Mr. Gordon told me about the multimedia course here at Elk Grove, I was ecstatic, and I decided to join my junior year. 

Being a first-year writer in the Intro course last year brought my fire back. I loved going out and interviewing students and writing stories. Multimedia class showed me that this is my passion, and it was the perfect pathway for me. 

My passion for media in its entirety gives me the amazing opportunity to still be a leader in my community. By having the ability to write about students at my school and share their stories, the entire community can learn a little bit more about those around them. 

This year, as the Sectional Editor for The Guardian, I have decided to take it a step further– I now have a media Instagram account, where I share my love for sports photography, along with my writing. This year, I attended many sporting events here at EGHS and took photos to share with my community. I even held the first-ever student-led wrestling media day and had so much fun with it. 

Along with photography, Ariana Trausch and I decided to make a talk show called the “Alexa and Ari Show.” Although we couldn’t put out as many episodes as we had hoped, we had so much fun with it and learned so much about each other in the process. 

My multimedia class has made an everlasting impact on my life, and I am now certain that it will be in my future. I owe all of my thanks to my media teacher, Mr. Modelski, who has guided me through these past two years and has made me a better person and writer.

I also want to thank my amazing peers in the classroom who were always there for me when I needed help– especially Ariana Trausch with the “Alexa and Ari Show,” and Stella Alexandropoulos, the editor-chief who has helped me every step of the way. We learned so much together this year, and I’m so thankful for that. 

Thanks to this class, I will further my media career at the University of Missouri with a major in Communications and Sports Media, and a minor in Marketing.

Although my dream career is much different than the one I had grown up believing I’d been in, it now allows me to still be a leader and make an impact on my community.