Mirrors to Windows Selena Mae Peterson

As American journalist Sydney J. Harris once said, “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” When asked why I want to study journalism at Ohio University, my answer is just that: I want to turn mirrors into windows.

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I always knew that my career would involve English; my love for reading as a child wouldn’t allow for anything less, but I couldn’t pinpoint much more beyond that. Until my sophomore year of high school, I threw around the possibility of being a middle school English teacher (outrageous children; no, thank you), a freelance blogger (because that would definitely pay the bills...), and even a lawyer (since I have been told I am a fantastic arguer). But, all unsatisfactory career considerations aside, it wasn’t until I became an editor on Dover High School’s newspaper, The Crimsonian, that my ideal career choice became apparent.

On The Crimsonian staff, I served as copy editor my first two years before being appointed to editor-in-chief my senior year. As the copy editor, I edited solely for grammar. The task was almost robotic: no comma here; capitalize this; this needs italicizing; reword this section. It wasn’t until my...