Personal Narrative
All my life, I’ve loved to tell stories.
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My journalism habits started in Kindergarten, when my Grandpa David would drive me to school sometimes. Every time I got in the car, a copy of The Minnesota Star Tribune (then the Star Tribune) would be sitting on my seat. I would pick it up and immediately turn to my favorite section: Sports. I spent hours memorizing box scores, staring in awe at the cool photos, and planning what game to watch on TV that night.
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Fast forward to second grade, and an idea popped into young Yoni’s head: I should create a newspaper. Every Friday before Shabbat dinner, I would sit at the table in my grandparents’ family room and type out a new story for The Zackser. Stories back then consisted of Madden Super Bowls, interviews with my cousins, and captioning NFL photos.
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Ten years later, my reporting is a lot more advanced, but that love for storytelling is still there. It was there on the second day of my freshman year, when I, an anxious ninth grader, walked into a newspaper staff meeting. I knew very little about student journalism and had no experiences beyond The Zackser. Scared and a little nervous, I walked into room 351 and sat down. Luckily, my friend’s sister was the Co-Editor-in-Chief, so she helped me get started by giving me my first article assignment: An opinion piece about camp.
My writing quickly evolved as I became our COVID-19 beat reporter, interviewing students, doctors, and even the Associate Head of School. COVID was a very important issue that was constantly changing, so it was a good test of my journalism skills to consistently report on such a nuanced topic.
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Four years later I continue to report on those nuanced topics, but, just like my writing, they’ve also evolved. Instead of writing news reports about new vaccination policies, I write news features on politicians and how they’re connected to Blake. From standing in the pouring rain to even have the chance of an interview with GOP Senate Candidate Royce White to using our yearbook archive to find Dean Phillips and Kelly Morrison’s friends from high school, every moment I spent chasing these stories felt like I was a professional journalist, with one major difference: Instead of an office in a newsroom, I was on my couch in my house. That couch was also home to my biggest story of all: “The Only Person Expected to be Loyal is the Taxpayer:” An Investigation into the Minnesota North Stars’ Relocation.”
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My desk became a chaotic mess of open books with Post-it Notes on every page, file folders of photos I had to request via snail mail, my Jewish Scholastic Press Association reporter’s notebook filled to the brim with notes, and my computer perched precariously atop the books as I spent hours finding out what really happened to the North Stars. This project was a culmination of everything I’d ever learned in journalism, from cold-calling interview subjects to using AP Style to embed quotes. I especially loved this story because it allowed me to combine my love for sports with my passion for politics.
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As I look back at The Zackser, I think young Yoni would be proud. He’s told plenty of stories in four years, and he’ll tell many more in the future.