by Caleb Peter

When I was an 11 years old in fifth grade, times were simpler. Back then, there was a field trip I was really looking forward to. It was called BizTown. It was a functioning society run only by fifth graders, or so we thought, and we all had different roles and jobs to play.

Everyone was picking out a career for BizTown. Eleven years old Caleb was very worried about what career he was going to get. Eleven years old Caleb didn’t know what role he had yet to play in society. Eleven years old Caleb sounds a lot like 17 years old Caleb.

I looked through all the career options. There was a banker, mayor, DJ and some others, but none of these seemed like a good fit for me. Then for some unknown reason, one job caught my eye. It was a job writing for the newspaper.

I don’t know why I did, but I signed up to be the newspaper writer. What a coincidence. Here I am, writing for the newspaper as a senior in high school.

Does the fact that I was a writer in fifth grade have any prophetic meaning for my career as an adult? Maybe I was meant to be a journalist. Writing has always been fun for me. Then again, maybe I wasn’t meant to be a journalist. My job in BizTown as a writer was not that great.

We were at BizTown for only one day. Everyone was playing out their jobs. I went to the small building that was for the BizTown newspaper. I was assigned a story, and I was typing it out throughout the day on a computer. I can’t recall what the story was about, but I do remember how bad it was.

I was about halfway through the story when something else caught my attention. I walked away with the story incomplete on the computer. One of the editors glanced at my story and she thought it was complete. She wasn’t the best editor. The story was riddled with errors, and it wasn’t even halfway finished.

When I came back, it was too late. The newspapers were printed. You could see my half-written story published, with “by Caleb Peter” right next to it. It was embarrassing. I just hope it will never happen again. It’s a good thing the readers of Biz-News are a much smaller audience than the PCM Outlook. The editors I have for the PCM Outlook are a lot better than the one I had in BizTown.

I think that journalism is really fun. It can be stressful, but as long as you get your story done, the pros outweigh the cons. As long as I don’t get distracted and leave my stories unfinished, I think I’ll be a good writer.

In conclusion, always finish your…