BACK ROW (from left): Citizen Teen Columnists Ashlee Maez, Erick Vega, Ravi Ram and Natalee Dawson.
FRONT ROW: Jasmin Fimbres, Leigh Jensen and Emily Hu.
Writing is an interesting thing to do. I never know how to start or really even how to end.
There’s also no process to my writing. I simply let it come to me and when it does, it’s hard to stop.
So when asked by family members, “What’s your next column gonna be about?” I always answer, “I don’t know yet.”
Not until a week or so before my article is due do I try to think of things that have sparked my interest or are worth sharing with the Tucson Citizen readers.
Although that may not seem like a difficult task, it is. Trust me.
The sad thing is that every week is normally the same routine for me.
Other than school, on Mondays and Wednesdays the youth mariachi group I direct, Mariachi Nueva Melodía, has practice from 6 to 8 p.m.
Thursdays, I give violin lessons. Fridays and Saturdays I play with Mariachi Sol Azteca at La Parilla Suiza and on Sundays Sol Azteca has practices and violin sectionals.
My only free day is Tuesday, and on that day I tend to relax and not do anything once I get home from school.
However, it just so happens my column deadlines are always on Tuesday.
For this, I am grateful.
It changes my week, gives me something to look forward to. Something to strive for: writing.
Writing about whatever I please. The Citizen gave me that opportunity to express myself, to share my opinions and beliefs on different subjects.
But it is with great distress that I sit here on Tuesday night looking at my computer screen, knowing this will be the last time I will write for the Tucson Citizen.
Over the next seven weeks, I won’t have any column due. No one will ask me what my next piece will be about.
This is it.
On the other hand, I get to keep the work I have put into writing for the Citizen. My column clippings will be a tangible memory of what the Citizen meant for me.
I hope you all can keep a piece of the Citizen in your memories as well.
Being that this is my last column, I must thank those who have given me this opportunity.
My Tía (aunt) Lancha is at the top of the list. If she hadn’t told me to apply to be a teen columnist, you wouldn’t be reading this right now.
Of course, my mom and grandma must be included because they’re the most enthusiastic and supportive ones toward my writing.
Then there are Billie Stanton and Mark Kimble, from the Citizen, who chose the teen columnists and had confidence in us week after week to produce these articles.
It is because of these people that I have enjoyed my Tuesday night writing sessions and because of them that I got to be a part of this great newspaper, the Tucson Citizen.
Jasmin Fimbres is a junior at University High School. E-mail: sings_n_strings@hotmail.com
JASMIN FIMBRES