Young blood 6/10

I would like to devote this column to two simple words for one amazing community. Those simple words are thank you, and that amazing community I'm talking about is Nevada. I guess I should tell you why I am so thankful to Nevada. It all started during my senior year of high school. I was working in the Nevada High School Speech and Debate Tournament Hospitality room. As I typically do, I was running my mouth saying how I would like to do this and that. One of the things that I had said was that I wanted to do was be a youth writer for the newspaper without even knowing I was saying all of this with the then editor at the time, Jeffrey Jackson, standing behind me. All of a sudden he turns around and carries on a conversation with me. He then tells me that he was the editor and that he wanted me to stop by the newspaper with a few examples of my writing. I could barely contain myself. I was so excited! The very day I showed him some of my writing, Jeffrey asked me to submit my first piece of writing for the Tuesday column space. This was my chance, I couldn't believe it. For months I had been talking about how I wanted to write for the newspaper and all the ideas I had for columns and suddenly my mind was blank. I had no clue what I was going to write about. As the Tuesday's passed I was under the assumption that I would only be writing until I graduated from high school but when that passed I figured that I would only have until the end of the summer. I was down to mere weeks before I would head off to St. Louis for college, but suddenly weeks turned into months and months turned into years. It doesn't seem possible that I have been writing my Tuesday column for two and a half years now. As you might have read in some of my other columns I like to write because it is a venting system for me. I can sit down in front of my computer and type away all of my frustration, angst, unhappiness, and stress each time I write my column. I get a chance to fill everyone in on everything in my life whether it be my day to day happenings or just my view on current situations. I get such a satisfaction from writing and that satisfaction is opening up the newspaper or logging on to the Nevada Daily Mail Web site and seeing my writing printed. To see all of my hard work displayed. As the days counted down before I left for college I had several people approach me inquiring whether or not I would continue writing for the paper each week even though I would be miles away from home. Upon returning home on breaks from school, I would often have people from our community approach me and tell me how much they enjoy reading my column or how much they look forward to it each week. I can't begin to tell you how incredible that feels. To have people look forward to reading your writing and to have them tell you how much they enjoy reading what I write each week. You all have been my greatest supporters and if it weren't for you I wouldn't have a column. There have been times when I get so overwhelmed with work that I have to chose what I am going to have to give up so my plate isn't so full. Your support and encouragement is what keeps me writing. Thank you for the amazing compliments, thank you for picking up that paper each Tuesday and turning to my column, and thank you for always being supportive. I have said it before, but I will say it again, I feel so privileged to live in Nevada because this community is wonderful.