The stack is about three inches tall, about nine manilla file folders worth. In them are about three years of intense writing work I did as part of my undergraduate studies 15 years ago while earning my degree in journalism with a minor in creative writing. The writing I crammed into those few years caused me to burn out and turn to the business world for employment immediately after college. It took me about five years to pick up a pen and notepad again when I was a reporter for a small rural newspaper in Wisconsin. I remained at the Daily Citizen for only nine months. My crime and county government beat didn't exactly bring out the passion of creative or feature writing that I was able to pursue in my college days. It did help to build my confidence, however. It affirmed the belief that I had what it took to be a reporter, even if news writing wasn't what I wanted to do.