BrightEyesNW

I am, first and foremost, an ARTIST.
I draw, take photos, play three different musical instruments, sing, and write. Art is expression and, being a rather opinionated and outspoken person, I have always felt the necessity of self-expression. I realized at a young age that, with my skill level, I would most likely never make a living drawing or painting so I began the search for a fitting occupation, the only requirement being some form of a creative outlet. Photojournalism. The conjunction of writing, news writing, and photography, the act of capturing a single moment of time and preserving the beauty, the emotion, the impact for years to come.
Recently my college English teacher has had me questioning this choice. I had already considered a major in English instead of journalism, to better my overall writing skills and literary knowledge, but while in her class I've begun to lean more towards a career as a novelist, not a high paying job for most, but I'd be writing what I wanted to write and I already have about five unfinished manuscripts littering my room. Compared to the existential, legendary works of intellectuals such as Jack London, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Dickens, D.H. Lawrence, Waldo Emerson, Aldous Huxley, and Albert Camus, journalism, which all too often consists of writing to please the lowest common denominator of the world demographic seems dreadfully cold. I myself would be all too tempted to turn a common features piece into a philosophical rant after opening my mind to the concepts taught by Frau Kruse. But when I voiced this concern to her she only further encouraged me to pursue my original "dream". Writers like London and Dickens, as Kruse would say, wrote to "advance on chaos and the dark", a task she has now challenged me to as a journalist. Sometimes the pen can be mightier than the sword and it is a goal of mine in life to prove just that.