It started early for me. My dad gave me my first camera when I was 8. It was a simple little camcorder that had about 30 minutes of battery, but that was more than enough for me. It was my first prized possession. Then in middle school, I got into the habit of secretly reading the "grown up" sections of the newspaper; patiently waiting for my mom to leave for the grocery store before rushing to the newspaper, thumbing through The Indianapolis Star, reading about entirely too many murders, and then expertly re-crafting the flurry of delicate paper into the neat little square that I found it in - all before my mom got home. When I was in high school, my lack of willpower to pull myself away from the morning news (it didn't help that the best stories were always at the end of the hour) resulted in me being consistently late to my first period art class (a habit I've since curbed). All of these things quietly pushed me toward the dream I now get to call my career.

Journalism has given me the chance to explore, question, express, and solve - all through my favorite medium. Andrew Carnegie said it best: "My heart is in the work." I'm lucky to have found a career that demands as much imagination and curiosity as it does vigor and passion, as much gumption and fearlessness as vulnerability and humanity.