First it was a couple of opinionated letters to a weekly sport magazine. These won me a couple of Parker pens but more importantly the thrill of seeing my name in print in a publication people were paying for.  

Then it was contributing reports about my school to a neighbourhood watch newsletter edited by a community-minded retiree.   

After one of my submissions about a school dance performance he wrote back to me with priceless advice, having cut from my work words like ‘marvelous’, ‘excellent’ and ‘talented’.  

“If you feel you really must use an adjective, go and lie down until the feeling passes,’’ he wrote in what would be the first of piece of advice I’d receive from an editor. 

From there it was work experience at my home city’s paper, The Canberra Times. Seeing my byline on stories in the paper that had always turned up on the lawn at home was exciting and encouraging.

Then, in my final year at university, I was fortunate to have two opinion pieces published in The Sydney Morning Herald, in a weekly spot on their comment page they used to reserve for young writers.  

I don’t doubt that all these experiences helped me get my foot in the door of journalism.

The Southern Highland News wants to give the same opportunity to this community’s young wordsmiths, who may aspire to a career in journalism, or something else entirely.

If you have something that moves you, annoys you, inspires you or even just makes you want to share your thoughts, we want to hear from you. You never know where it may lead. 

All we need is 500 words of your best writing on a topic that means something to you and a photo of you to run with it. 

Visit southernhighlandnews/community/forms and click on the ‘Got a story to tell’ link to submit your work.  We’ll do the rest.