Nanette Light - Spring 2008

Nanette LightI have always had a minor obsession with paper.

From observations to short stories, I recorded everything I saw and everything I thought. My journal was an extension of myself.

Now into my college years, I have replaced my turquoise, sticker-covered journal with a slim, white reporter's notebook.

I took my initial taste as a journalist while reporting for my junior high school's monthly newspaper. One of my first stories was an article another student and I wrote on heavy backpacks. We stood outside the front door of our junior high school in The Woodlands, Texas, and weighed students' backpacks as they entered the building. We recorded the data and used this information to create a box next to our story. In this moment, I felt like a true reporter.

Mmmmmmm journalism tasted good.

The junior high school days have passed, but I keep coming back for more helpings of journalism to feed my cravings.

Now a journalism junior and business minor at the University of Oklahoma, I have worked for two years at the university's newspaper, The Oklahoma Daily. I have covered beats from student government to religion. I have also interned for a public relations firm and a congressman in his Washington office. While these internships were not journalism internships, I think it is valuable to know and understand how institutions I will work with and cover operate.

Since my stint as a congressional intern last summer, I was determined to return to Washington as a journalist. So here I am: a Washington reporter. With my pen and white, reporter's notebook in hand, I am ready. Let the tasting continue.

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