Trying my hand at writing

Hello all, my name is Sha’niénhawe Diabo. I am the summer student working for The Eastern Door. Throughout the summer I will be writing articles and the Summer Student Scoop. I am going into secondary five - grade 11 - at Kuper Academy on the West Island when school starts back.

I have a multitude of different interests. Music, movies, video games, even writing. I will talk about that more in depth in a different week. I have a few ideas for the next few weeks for the Summer Student Scoop.

This week’s column will be about why I chose to work at The Eastern Door, which involves my love of writing.

In grade nine, my school introduced us to how to properly write in essay format. I found this process really fun, and I always enjoy when my school lets us write essays and the like. My grade nine English class helped me to hone my skills when it comes to writing, which, as I said earlier, I love to do.

I use the essay format to strengthen my opinions - for ideas such as why I believe a character is better than another, or why one game’s story is better than another. Along with writing in my school’s essay format, I also write short stories about characters I like using what my school has taught me about story structure.

I thought I could help hone my craft of writing by applying to The Eastern Door - along with other skills such as talking to new people and trying to calm myself down from deadlines. Even though I love talking, talking to new people is a worrying experience to me and deadlines give me so much stress.

When I applied, I thought this job would hopefully help me deal with these skills while also helping me hone my writing. Even though I knew at the time writing a story or essay is not the same as writing an article, still writing over the summer would help me practice and maybe even give me motivation to continue writing my short stories.

Writing an article takes a certain view to where everything one writes is with fact. You have to step back and process the situation through the lens of an observer rather than a person who was in the situation.

After a full two weeks on the job, I can say I’m really enjoying my time at The Eastern Door. I get to write, which I love doing, for money?! It’s still strange to me. Along with seeing your name in the paper - it is really fun to see.

I really like having some freedom with how to approach my tasks. It’s a lot different from school where it’s “do it now.” It really is a change, but I enjoy it.

During the start of the summer, I applied to many jobs - jobs such as working for the Kahnawake Youth Centre, or other jobs through the Kahnawake Summer Student Employment Program (KSSEP), such as the Public Relations Unit.

I worked at the Youth Centre last year, and it was a fun experience, but they didn’t choose me this year. This would have been the comfortable job, something familiar. I’m sort of glad I didn’t get this job as it led me to new opportunities.

Another job I applied to was the Public Relations Unit of MCK. I applied because I was interested in the workings of social media. I mostly use it to talk to my friends, but I wondered how the Public Relations would use social media.

I’m glad I was able to join The Eastern Door team. I’m learning so much on how to write. I’m realizing there is a huge difference between how to write an article and my school’s essays.

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