From summer intern to editor/publisher

LAKEVILLE — Last summer, I was an intern at The Lake-ville Journal, for a reason: I planned to start a newspaper for my small high school come fall. 

I learned every step of the newspaper process, from the staff meeting on Tuesday afternoon to the stories coming in and doing layouts on Monday and Tuesday. It was fun and exciting, and I wished it could go on forever. 

This experience was the perfect stepping stone before being thrown into the process of starting something resembling a newspaper with my friend at our school, High Mowing School in Wilton, N.H. 

Applying what I learned while working at a well-run newspaper to a small-scale high school community paper run by a team of two reduced the whole newspaper business down to its fundamentals, which is how any business really starts. Therefore, the difficulties I discovered and the things I learned can apply to any of life’s endeavors.

First, the challenges were not editing and layout, but in working with other people toward a common goal. Every tiny decision made had to represent my friend and me, and we didn’t always agree. I realized how important it was to stand up for both myself and my vision of the paper and to have confidence — but I also had to learn which decisions weren’t worth fighting for, such as which font to use. Compromise is everything. 

Keeping the original passion for my project was also hard. Life is busy, and it was easy to slip in my intention for the paper and reduce it to another item on my to-do list. No matter how passionate you are, I think there will always be times when you think, “Why did I get myself into this again?” But when I reminded myself that this was truly something I wanted to do, I picked it up with new enthusiasm. And that’s when I really had fun.

Starting my newspaper was hard. It gave me a whole new appreciation for places like The Lakeville Journal and the people there. Thank you, Lakeville Journal, for showing me both the work that goes into it and how much fun it can be.