Adam Kealoha Causey - Fall 2004

Combing through my memories, the earliest recollection of newspapers I can come up with is not the chronicling of a life-changing world event or a moving story of human triumph. It is of the funny pages. My great uncle used to fold the colorful comic sections into pointy-edged, tight-fitting sailor hats for my cousins and me to wear during birthday and Christmas parties.

Those silly hats cross my mind only when I am reminiscing with my family during get-togethers, not every day. The hats were simply a fun and entertaining part of a bigger picture: the importance of our family being together and enjoying one another’s company.

Newspapers, to me, affect our lives in the same way when we read them. As most of us try to remember, we won’t necessarily recall individual stories. But we have a breadth of knowledge that we have acquired based on our consumption of the written word, whether it was over morning cups of coffee or during a lunch breaks. That knowledge gives each of us a springboard to leap from to start dialogues that can connect us to people with whom we may not otherwise have contact.

Growing up in my hometown of Doyline in rural north Louisiana, I was fortunate to enjoy opportunities that I think only a small town can afford someone. Schoolteachers who knew me well were able to give the patience and attention I needed to develop writing skills. As an early elementary student I tried my hand at fiction writing, and I was a published author by the ripe old age of 8 after coming up with a tall tale about Paul Bunyan coming to Louisiana. I enjoyed writing, so I kept it up.

By the time I was a sophomore at Louisiana State University, the opportunity arose for me to write some non-fiction for the student paper, The Reveille. I started writing one or two stories a week, and somehow I got hooked on the newspaper business. I spent a semester at California State University, Chico, writing for The Orion, a student newspaper, then was a freelance reporter for The Advocate in Baton Rouge.

Entering my senior year back at LSU, I have spent countless hours every week working in newsrooms. I do not have many stories that fight for my own memory’s attention. But thinking about the entire experience, I am reminded of those paper sailor hats – now I have knowledge and have met a lot of people I would not otherwise know because of newspapers. I hope my writing has helped others see the bigger picture, too.

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