It was a normal afternoon in Mrs.Deadlow’s third grade class. It was time to practice writing, everyone seemed content except for Bella Parades, who struggled with writing. Little did she know this struggle would open her world to new experiences never seen before.
Parades is a sixteen year old junior, an Editor in Chief for the PawPrint, Plainfield South’s school paper. She only began seriously writing shortly after her eighth grade year.
“Honestly when I was younger I was horrible at writing, but in 8th grade my social studies teacher told me that I made him believe in writing talent, which really made me want to do it,” Paredes said.
Years later, she has now enhanced her writing capabilities, and is hoping to use them at her dream college, Northwestern University.
“ I want to study journalism and in the future, work or intern for the Washington Post, it’s my dream,”Paredes said.
Along with her acclaimed writing talents, she also hat academic talents as well. According to Hannah Christie, her english teacher.
She says Paredes is very self motivated and is a very hard worker, she also says she’s articulate and thorough in her work.
Even though she might be the Editor in Chief now, it wasn’t always that way.Caroline Butler the Advanced Writing and Journalism teacher and supervisor for the PawPrint, discusses her time with Bella before her Chief position.
“She started in Journalism 1, and she really was interested in being an editor the next year (this year), and so she did her best to write as many stories as she could. Last year was a learning experience for her,” Butler said
Now, Paredes may seem like a pretty serious person from this perspective. According to Butler,Paredes was really shy and quiet when she first walked into journalism and focused on her work. In reality her life outside of school and journalism is quite the opposite of boring. Bella Scott, a close friend and a fellow junior, reconciles some things she first noticed about Paredes.
“Some characteristics I first noticed about Bella were, that’s she is very attentive and really excels in her writing. She was always super funny to work with in class,” Scott said.
Her friendships don’t end there. Long distance friend Zoe Swartz gives some insight to the Bella at home, behind closed doors.
“A typical Bella thing to do is laugh at her own jokes and stuff she says because she thinks she’s super funny. She’s also really loud! She always makes sure to call me when she’s home alone, so she doesn’t bother anyone. Words to describe her include sarcastic, hilarious, and passionate, they describe her in a nutshell,” Swartz said.
“Well, we both like One Direction and Marvel and the same T.V shows and we’re going to a concert together in November,” Scott said.
“We were acquaintances for about a good seven months, and for the past four months and over the summer we’ve become better friends. Overall I’d say about a year. We originally met over the discussion of One Direction and our love for writing. We’ve gotten even closer over time,” Swartz said.
There seems to be a constant factor in all her friendships, they all share a passion for their similar interest in the band One Direction. Paredes, Scott and Swartz all said that one of their main connections stemmed from that group.
The young journalist seems to have a bright future in the journalism pathway. She receives copious amounts of support not only from her family, and her friends, but her peers also.
“I’m totally supportive! I would love to see her achieve her dreams and will help her in any way I can. Being in college for Journalism myself, I can’t wait to maybe compete with her one day in the field. Or even work with her,” Swartz said.
Paredes’s life has changed significantly from when she was younger to now. She would’ve never thought she’d aspire to be a journalist. There were some influential pieces of her story that helped fit the puzzle pieces together.
“Meeting all these new people, we have all gotten really close even with Ms.Butler. Even a writing program at Northwestern, a lot of doors have opened. All the constant support from my peers and family definitely helps and journalism has made such a huge as positive impact on my life. I wouldn’t want to change a thing,” Paredes said.