“Can you describe the contest you were in?”

“It was a write-off, so there was, a section for editorials, news writing, sports writing, feature writing and wherever Mrs. Klevens’ thought you fit the best, she put you in. It was a huge hall with thousands of people in it, and I felt really stressed for a little bit. For 30 minutes, the speaker talked about our topic, which was the Gay Rights Movement. He described his struggle to adopt a child with his partner, because of their sexual orientation. We had 30 minutes of the interview, and then after that we were given 60 minutes to write.”

“Were there a lot of good writers there?”

“Some people brought their Merriam-Webster dictionary – I didn’t even know, cause It was my first time, I just went because Mrs. Klevens entered me, and some people were really prepared to do this. I just went with a composition notebook and a pencil…and I was not expecting to win – at all.”

“So, how did you feel when you first found out?”

“Actually, I found out in my English class, when I walked in. My teacher went, “Congratulations!” And I was like, ‘For what?’ She was like, “For the honorary mention you won!” I had no clue, because I hadn’t checked their website yet, so yeah, it felt good.”

“Was it easy to know what angle to write about?”

“Well, they gave you a specific topic, and there was a sheet with some background on it. There was some background info and then whatever notes we could take in the 30 minutes he talked. So, my hand was hurting by then, because I was constantly typing for 30 minutes. And he was going on and on and on – he did not stop.”

“Was it hard to come up with a good intro?”

“Yes, it was, because I wanted something that, you know, hooked the reader in, but at the same time… 25 words. The lead is always only 25 or less words. This is my first year in newspaper, but after I wrote the story, I went over it about three times, thinking If Klevens were here to read it, what would she comment? She constantly comments on your google drive. And that, I think helped, because I changed the stories a couple of times.”

“Overall, how did you like it?”

“I loved it! It was a lot of fun. There were no awkward moments.”