By Jane Hirt
A couple of weeks ago, an old friend sent me an article I had written for our junior high newspaper—in 1981.
It was an editorial in defense of video games: Pacman, in particular, which cost 25 cents to play at the local grocery store arcade. Even back then, grownups were freaking out about the harm video games may be causing kids.
I made some pretty convincing arguments in that article, like “we should be able to do what we want with our lunch money” and “there are far worse things to spend your time doing.”
Article from the Irving News
It was fun to read something I’d written more than 35 years ago. But most of all, that article reminded me that I’d caught the journalism bug early.
I was about 14 years old when I wrote that editorial for the Irving News. (Fun fact: My brother Mitch Hirt now teaches at Irving Middle School. Maybe you had him for math!)
But back to the journalism bug. Yes, it bit me young and it bit me good. I continued taking journalism classes at Lincoln Southeast, and then got my journalism degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After that, I moved to Chicago to work for the Chicago Tribune, and I spent 25 years there doing lots of interesting work and seeing lots of interesting times. I even got to run that legendary newsroom as its managing editor from 2008-2014.
I always felt lucky that I got to do what I loved. Journalism was a true calling for me. If you’re curious, and you like to write and to ask tons of questions and care about things like fairness and righting wrongs, then you might be a future journalist.
Even though I no longer work in a newsroom, I still write every day, ask a ton of questions and try to contribute toward a more fair and just world.
If you think journalism may be a career for you, I hope you’ll join me in the social media newsroom at TedXYouth Lincoln on Aug. 19. I’m looking for volunteers right now, and it would be an amazing opportunity for you to see what this career is like.
By volunteering for the newsroom, you will be a journalist for the day, covering the event and publishing your work on social media.
Social media platforms are an important distribution method for big news organizations these days, and they’re perfect for #TEDxYouthLNK as well. We’ll be working on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
So fill out this form to volunteer for the TEDxYouth social media newsroom.
I’ll see you there. Unless I come down with Pacman fever, that is.
My Radical Sabbatical 