Column: Kessa Albright, Guest Column

Before your senior year, you’re supposed to have almost everything figured out. What schools you’re applying for. What you want to major in. How you’re going spend your final year in high school — infected with senioritis or working as hard as you did the previous years.

Well this little intern is clueless about her future. Instead of being set on one goal, my mind is clouded with tens of different career possibilities. Which is OK, right? Right?

I have loved writing ever since before I even knew how to write. I remember being in third grade, writing down the biggest words I knew, then filling the spaces between them with cursive-like swiggly lines to make it look like a real story.

After I read the English dictionary twice by the end of fourth grade, I started exploring the different styles of writing. I tried poetry and creative writing, then came across journalism when I was a sophomore. I was turned on by this style because you write about actual things. There’s no making up characters or places and conjuring up imagery; just getting information, interviewing and putting it all together. Simple.

So when I got a Facebook message from the publisher of the Albert Lea Tribune, Scott Schmeltzer, offering me an internship at the paper for the summer, I was thrilled. I ran across the school to tell my publications teacher (shoutout to Albert Lea High School journalism instructor Riley Worth for teaching me all I know about journalism). I was late to chemistry because I had to call my mom and tell her the news, too (shoutout to Lisa Albright for raising me to be the fool I am).

Having this internship will give me a head-start in the journalism world, if I decide that is the world I want to live in. But what about the other worlds calling my name? TV writing is all like, “Kessa, come here and you can be the next Tina Fey!” (Shoutout to Tina Fey for inspiring me to continue my attempts at being funny.)

Teaching argues that even though there’s a lot of schooling to do, it’s worth it to help America’s youth not be stupid. But graphic design is like “Meh, whatever do what you want, but you better be awesome if you come here.”

On my first day of this internship I thought to myself, “This is the first day of the rest of my life,” but then again, what if it isn’t? This could be a jump start for my career, or it could just be an amazing learning experience. Whatever I do choose to do, I promise I’ll enjoy going to work every day and try to make a difference in the world. Or I’ll be living in a box on the streets of New York City, so make sure to give me a dollar when I ask. Thanks.

Kessa Albright is a summer intern at the Albert Lea Tribune.