Profile Article on Journalism Classmate

For my Magazine Feature Writing course, I had to write a profile article about one of my classmates. © 2012 Kathryn Fetheroff All Rights Reserved

During childhood, young girls throughout the world fantasize about what they would like to be when they grow up. Some dream about becoming a veterinarian or an actress, whereas others envision themselves as being the first woman to hold presidential office in the United States.

 

As a young girl, Emily always dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer. Growing up on the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio, Emily was surrounded by numerous dance studios and their long-legged, graceful dancers with perfectly-proportioned bodies and flawless technique.

 

But, there was only one dance company that Emily had her eyes set firmly upon: the prestigious Cincinnati Ballet.

 

When she entered high school, Emily began teaching ballet to preschool- to early elementary-aged children, along with investing immeasurable amounts of sweat and tears into her own training.

 

Toward the end of high school, Emily had already prepared herself to become a professional ballet dancer through the Cincinnati Ballet.

 

One day, however, that dream came to screeching halt when Emily tore several ligaments in her knee. Unable to put any weight on her leg, she was forced to take a break from dancing.

 

Justifiably heartbroken and discouraged, Emily eventually decided to pursue a different dream: to design page spreads for magazines " hopefully in the same city in which she had once longed to dance.

 

Now a junior in the nationally renowned E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in rural Athens, Ohio, Emily is majoring in infographics and page design and works as a page designer for Thread Magazine, an Athens-based fashion magazine founded by an Ohio University graduate.

 

In her spare time, Emily is also a member of the Delta Zeta sorority and volunteers in the Public Relations and Advertising Department for the Ohio University Program Council, which helps to provide Ohio University students with various entertainment, cultural, educational, and social activities.

 

Having experienced the devastating loss of her greatest dream, Emily now demonstrates the much-admired ability to pick oneself up and to discover a new dream.

 

Alexander Graham Bell has been quoted for saying that, “When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us” (ThinkExist).

 

Emily shows us what we can achieve when we give that other door a chance.

 

 

Works Cited:

 

Sasson, Remez. (2009, June 1). When One Door Closes Another Door Opens.

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