Our sibling assignment this week is to write about an accomplishment from high school. My brother's is here and my sister's is here. I attended high school in Kellogg, Idaho and graduated in 1973. High school was a busy, active, full -of- fun time that went by quickly. A few months ago my mother and I had a conversation about where my interest in writing began. She was staying at my house and as we visited she reminded me of opportunities I experienced in my school years that may have contributed to my love of writing today. One thing that stands out in high school was when I was a feature writer for our school newspaper " The Wildcat". Our school newspaper was published at the local town newspaper office so it looked like a real newspaper. I think it came out once a week. When I was a junior in high school I took my first journalism class. I wanted to be a newspaper writer. I began by doing features on the fashions in the high school. I helped with a feature called " Fads and Fashions." Next I reported on events in the high school such as school plays, speech competitions, and music activities. Then my editor K.B. decided I should do a column. My own newspaper column! It was titled " Wildcat Tales" and my job was to give the scoop on the happenings of our high school. I remember loving to compose that weekly column on an old typewriter in the "journalism office" .
Perhaps these type of columns set the stage for "web logs" as writing on the internet became popular. I loved composing " Wildcat Tales" and that column was the beginnings of a writing life that started and stopped many times in the next thirty- some years until I began this blog. Now my tales have taken on a different form. Thanks to KB, I was encouraged to put my thoughts to typewriter to paper back in that year when I was a junior in high school at Kellogg High School. That writing lit a spark that ignited, then smoldered, then reignited again. That was an accomplishment from high school that was a lifelong lesson. It was the beginning of a writing life that I hope continues to grow and thrive.