I like to imagine that newsrooms are like beehives. Honey bees work together to achieve one thing: honey. All these talented minds and great ideas are all in one room, working on one thing: a newsmagazine. Journalists are running on adrenaline from an amazing story we’re writing, trying to get interviews scheduled, excited to get our story in on time. We all have one thing in common: we want to produce a polished paper that’s different from the rest and reaches all the standards of our editors and the public. The buzzing gets loud, the honey creates a sticky mess, but at the end of the day, we’re proud of what we make.

People are introduced early to competition. When we used to play checkers in kindergarten against our friends, we weren’t aware a good majority of our lives would feel like that board game. We used to race our friends for the position of line leader, not knowing we would feel out of breath when we got older. People everywhere are beating themselves up over getting second place or getting an 80 percent on their math test when the person sitting next to them got an 85 percent.

When thinking of honey bees in their hives, bees are hard workers, each bee is born knowing how to do two things: pollinate and make honey. When there aren’t enough flowers in a pollinated area, honey bees tend to oppose each other. Much like the honeybees, journalists have that competitive instinct as well. We all want to impress our editors. We all want to win a Pulitzer or a Quill and Scroll Gold Key. We all want to pollinate as many flowers as we can.

People get nervous, they get desperate, they might say or do things that are out of their character. Competition can cause people to crack under the pressure. They can be hard on others and hard on themselves because they simply want to be their best selves that they can be and improve their work.

Competition isn’t something to fear or completely push away, though. I believe competition can push people to do their best.  It helps people improve because they have this want to be better.

Honey bees work the best when they work together. Rather than competing against each other other, we should be joining together. Honey bees would never make honey, newsrooms would never send off papers and nothing would reach it’s true potential without everyone working together. Creativity needs collaboration. Imagine what one talented person can make. Now, imagine what 50 talented people can make when they all have their ideas under one roof. We could move mountains together.

We can never get rid of competition; that’s entirely impossible. I don’t think we should either. I think people need to remember that they are in their position for a reason. They are where they are at because they are good at what they do. I think people can forget that, and they want to be better at what other people are good at. I’m not saying people should only stick to what they know, but rather than being better than that one person, I think we should all work on bettering ourselves.

It’s hard to ignore what others are doing. We see their successes; we want the same thing.  Not only in the newsroom, but everywhere, I believe that rather than tearing others down or making sure your work is better than theirs, you should build yourself up and make sure your piece is greater than your last. There is always room for improvement. I think people will be happier with themselves when they step back, let other people work and work on themselves. We shouldn’t try to be the best at something we don’t know how to do, we should be improving on what we are good at. We should  Everyone is unique. Some bees know where they are going as soon as they leave the hive, but some need some guidance. Bees will be attracted to pink or blue flowers; it’s always better when they spread out and do something different. We all need to embrace our differences and talents. We all need to helo each other improve. Then, not only can we create a better newsroom, but a better society all together.