Sumter Item graphic designer is exactly where she wanted to be but in a different capacity

My name is Janel, and I am one of The Sumter Item's in-house graphic designers.

My days are never the exact same, but most days you can find me working with our Item team to build ads, create our special newsprint sections and design our magazines.

When asked how I got into the newspaper industry, I always chuckle to myself. My area of study in college was communications, and that specific track had two splits; one was focused more on public relations, and the other was journalism.

The running joke in my major was that we were comm majors because we couldn't do math, and that was particularly true for me. With input from my advisor, I took the journalism side to avoid extra upper-level math classes; and as my advisor explained to me, there are a lot of transferable skills between the two emphases.

As the clock ticked down to graduation, the existential crises of finding a job began. I came to the unpleasant realization that I hated inverted pyramid writing, AP Style and trying to turn stories around on a deadline. In short, I absolutely did not want to be a reporter and didn't have the talent for it. (Shout out to all the fabulous reporters on our team; it's a lot harder than they make it look).

My poor advisor had to take more than one panicked call from me as I worried about my future career, but, again, communication was a versatile field. Thankfully, I found a wonderful first job at the Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce. I was able to use my communications degree and my minor in photography. Part of that particular job involved me learning how to do graphic design and use Adobe software products. I watched tutorial after tutorial and absolutely fell in love with that side of it. After three years at the Chamber, I took a chance and moved over to The Item to work with their graphics department to continue to learn more about the craft.

After all the panic and anxiety, I ended up exactly where I thought I didn't want to be. But, it turns out it was exactly where I wanted to be, just in a very different capacity.

To my college professor, Dr. Yaquinto, you were right. And, in case you were wondering, I still abhor and butcher AP Style's streets, numbers and times and occasionally try to sneak in the Oxford comma, which my editor so graciously removes.

Janel Przybyla is a graphic designer for The Sumter Item.