Freelance Writing
In June of 2020, my high school adviser sent out an email with a request for freelance writers for a local family and music group of publications. Although I only had experience in high school journalism, that editor took a chance on me and I am still regularly writing for them today. Writing freelance has given me the opportunity to learn and meet so many people and tell the stories of my community. It was also the first time where I felt an immense pressure to be great by myself. Only one editor, as far as I know, looks over my pieces whereas in every other context it has been at least 2-3. I genuinely enjoy my work as a freelance writer and also appreciate the money they give me in exchange for doing something I would have done for free. Click on the images for the article link :)
V.E. Schwab to come to A2
This is my most recent article where I had the opportunity to interview author Victoria "V.E." Schwab. I have been reading V.E. Schwab's books for years and jumped on the opportunity to talk to her about her books, book tour, and more. She was an extremely kind person and this is just an example where I had a genuinely good experience writing. Sometimes, I become apprehensive before an interview or an event I am covering because it feels like I am adding yet another thing to my plate but I have never had a bad experience with this.
Kiley Reid on Such A Fun Age
Another author talk but this time hosted by the Ann Arbor District Library! I love how they bring in such diverse authors and I absolutely love covering them. I have also covered Jamie Raskin's talk in conversation with Debbie Dingell and am currently reading his book. For Kiley Reid, I had binge-read Such a Fun Age and was OBSESSED. She was an amazing and engaging speaker and I genuinely am so happy to play a part in educating people in Ann Arbor about things that have happened and things they should know about.
Businesses in the pandemic
This was SO long ago but I had the opportunity to talk to three Ann Arbor-based businesses about what they are doing in light of the changes brought onto the food industry by Covid. There is one quote that to this day I regret not putting in this article, showing how once something is published it almost ceases to be yours anymore. Something that I learned from this piece is that having an outlet is such a powerful tool. I learned so much about how things changed for the owners of businesses and what that meant as a consumer. Also, people needed to talk during this time. We were all deprived of meeting new people that this personally gave me an outlet.
Lan City Noodles
I cannot pretend to remember every single article I have ever written because at this point there are too many. This is one that I forgot about until I was doing this project. Lan City Noodles is now an Ann Arbor Staple but when I did this interview it was a semi-known restaurant only in Ypsilanti (they now have two), almost just starting out. I had never been to this place at the time, but when interviewing, I could feel the family aspect of their food. It was inspiring and heartwarming (I still get a little choked up when I think about the sheer joy of the person I interviewed) to see this family chasing their dream. Every once in a while, I'll talk about things like Lan City and Sava's and V.E. Schwab with my friends and get to say that I interviewed the people or person behind that and they look at me like I'm a little weird. Which I am. But I think that helps in this profession.
