For my final article I am going to be sharing my opinions on what it has been like sharing my opinions with the school for the last three years. Whoa… KO News inception. I pretty much knew after I completed the journalism course during the first semester of my sophomore year, that I would want to write either reviews or opinions when I officially became a member the staff.
I’ve always been pretty opinionated, but what drew me to this section has always been the fact that I can write about literally whatever I want. Of course, sometimes I have trouble coming up with article ideas, which may or may not be the reason that for this issue I am literally writing an opinion on writing opinions.
Although in every edition of the newspaper there are at least a couple politically driven opinions in this section, you will never find one of them to be written by me. Obviously I have my own political views, but I just don’t feel the need to publish them in the paper. I would honestly rather just write my articles on other (arguably more insignificant) issues.
I find that the best articles are the ones where I would just find something that I had a slight opinion on, then basically just exaggerate the heck out of it. And usually by the end of the article I would actually feel more passionate about the topic. Something that is unique to the opinions section is that we gather people that aren’t a part of the KO News staff to share their opinions. So, something that I have been responsible for this past year being the head editor of the opinions section is finding students (and sometimes teachers) who are willing to write an article.
I always strived to gather varying opinions so that the section didn’t seem so one-sided, but sometimes it was hard to get people to be willing to put themselves out there, which is completely understandable. Although I value this aspect of the section, it can be difficult at times to find people who actually follow through with their articles. Nothing is more frustrating than counting on someone to write a 700 word article, only for them to tell you the day before News Day that they won’t actually have it done. That being said, I do find myself incredibly lucky that I get to read the opinions of people at KO that I maybe wouldn’t have had the opportunity to hear otherwise.
I am grateful to have learned to accept all opinions, and take a closer look at them before I judge those opinions. Of course, there have been some articles that I read through and question how in the world someone could feel such a way. But, then, I think about if the roles were reversed and that person heard my opinion, they would probably think I was crazy too. That is why I always make it a priority to keep an open mind as I read through articles. Not only because it’s not my job to judge people’s opinions, my job is simply to edit and publish them, but also because I learn more about my own opinions through reading about others. Sometimes I may go into an article thinking that I have a completely differing view, then by the time I am done reading it, I understand the other person’s views and maybe even agree with them after seeing their argument.
Over the past couple of years, I have learned to be comfortable with other people knowing my opinions, and sometimes disagreeing with them. Although, I haven’t had to deal with this too much, seeing as I have always stayed away from writing political pieces. If you have an opinion that you want to get out there or you just want to rant, then I strongly suggest writing an article for the opinions section of the KO News.
It doesn’t matter what grade you are in, and if you aren’t too sure it’s something you see yourself doing. Why not go out of your comfort zone a little and at least try it? It will give you a chance to take a closer look at your own views and why you hold them. It’s been real, KO News.
