Ball State Journalism Workshops

I made it. It's crazy for me to say this, because at the beginning of with week I was scared and unsure and doubtful. How can I possibly be editor-in-chief of a 300 page book when I know absolutely nothing about ladder planning and endsheets and chronological organization? 
This week I spent my time at a 5-day journalism workshop on the Ball State campus. I was there with both of my advisers and 18 other staff members. We learned and learned and worked crazy hard and ate cafeteria junk food and played volleyball and took selfies and worked even more. I was pushed to my very breaking point by two of the most amazing teachers, Nancy Hastings and Nicole Wilson.
I was in a class with 28 other editors-in-chief where we learned about everything from leadership to theme development to design to staff management. We created our yearbooks from the bottom up and learned life lessons along the way. 
Our class was discussion heavy, and the comments and suggestions from other editors helped me really build the plans that we are evolving into a yearbook. 
I also learned important life lessons from my amazing advisers. From my experience at Ball State, I learned the importance of confident body language and the necessary trait of doing publications to produce a piece of art, not to please others or gain friends. I have developed into a powerful, productive, professional leader and I believe that is all it takes to make an award-winning yearbook. 
Events like these make me confident in not only where I fit in at my high school, but where I will end up in the future. People like Wad and VP [fabulous advisers/yearbook extraordinares] and Mrs. Hastings make me feel that this was my calling. And I love every bit of it.
xxx 

One of my lovely advisers, Wad. She has ghosts in her house, is addicted to chewing ice, and has a daughter who thinks she's Snow White. 

My Yearbook Leaders [YBK] class photo. How original/adorable/awesome are we?

[most of] the staff that came to the workshops. We are such a dysfunctional family and even though we fight and laugh and cry, we are still as close as ever. I love being around people who share a love for something so beautiful [yearbook]