Tommy Callaghan is LaPorteCountyLife.com's #1StudentNWI representative at Michigan City high School. Each month, Tommy will spread the good news at MCHS through an original story highlighting something positive. For his first contribution, Tommy introduces himself, what he loves about writing and why he looks forward to this opportunity at LaPorteCountyLife.com.
My name is Tommy Callaghan, and I would like to introduce myself as the #1StudentNWI representative at Michigan City High School. I'd like to let the La Porte County community know a little bit about myself, my background in writing, what I love about it and what I am looking forward to most about writing for both LaPorteCountyLife.com and The Cityzen, our student newspaper.
First off, I have always been a writer, and have always loved it. Not only did my love for writing start early, but my fist chance to write stories came when I was only six years old, in a creative writing class. At the time, the stories consisted of out-of-place adjectives and missing words, but it made the grade. When I started writing, it was purely for assignments - but I always loved doing it. As I got older, I even began to write stories in my free time. Instead of it being for homework, it was for fun.
As time flew by, I found my writing styles change. From age 6-12, my writing was fun, creative and informal. Then I began to write very formally. Since I was 13, I have wrote very purposefully, while being formal too. However, just because my writing was formal, does not mean it wasn't fun.
To me, writing has never meant printing words on a page. Even though that's the official definition - it is not the meaning. Writing means to draft emotions, imagination, information and creativity. That’s what writing will always be to me.
Throughout my writing career, there has always been a sense of freedom when the time has come to put pen to paper. Even though writing has always been fun, it was always a tool; whether it was a tool used to get an A on an assignment, a tool to eliminate boredom, or something to just help vent something in my head.
While many others often found writing as a drag in middle school or elementary school, I took it as an opportunity to have fun, and will continue to do so.
Now, with the opportunity to work for a professional news source like LaPorteCountyLife.com as a freshman, writing will not just be a hobby or passion, but an opportunity. It will be an opportunity to explore Journalism and become a better writer, all while learning the ways of the hallways in high school.
When I heard about the opportunity to write for LaPorteCountyLife.com, I actually did not jump at it. It took about a day to decide, all with the help of my Journalism teacher and and Newspaper adviser, Ms. Chastain. Now, I cannot believe I did not volunteer right away.
Before, LaPorteCountyLife.com was just a great place to read from, but now it is also a great place to work, and that is exactly what I am looking for.