My name is Delaney Derry, and I am beyond excited to be working as a correspondent for The Covington News this summer.

I grew up in Walnut Grove but moved to Oxford just before the start of eighth grade. I graduated from Loganville Christian Academy in 2022. As a local to the area, I am thrilled to be able to spend some time at home and report on the city I hold so dearly. 

Currently, I am a senior at Georgia College & State University (GCSU), where I am on track to get my bachelor’s in English this December.  

I have a great love for Newton County and its sweet southern comfort. Although I do not live directly in Covington, I have practically grown up on the square. Whether it’s getting coffee at Bread and Butter with friends or watching the fireworks over the clock tower on the 4th of July, I have spent most of my life in this charming town. 

Over the years, I have dedicated a lot of time to writing. English was always my favorite subject in school, even as a little kid. 

I remember when I was in kindergarten, and my teacher asked each of the students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Among the various answers of pilots, police officers and princesses lay my reply as a journalist. How does a six-year-old know what journalism means?

But I knew exactly what I was talking about. The boldness and confidence of my six-year-old self was undeniable. I had big dreams to be very successful and to live a very exciting and fabulous life. I knew that I wanted to travel, talk to all kinds of people and just write. 

I have always loved learning new information and sharing stories. Education has always been an important thing for me. I really value school and have always taken my academics very seriously. There is always something new to learn, and I found my passion at a very young age to want to share information with people. 

As I got older, I dreamed of experiencing art, culture, history and all the beautiful things that life has to offer. And I wanted to let other people know about it too. 

I desired to not just make my way in the world but to truly see it, live in it and write about the things I experienced. 

Through copious amounts of reading, I fell in love with language, finding it utterly beautiful and enchanting. From the moment I learned to read, I knew I needed to do something with writing. 

I have always had a way with words, whether it was telling stories to friends and family or writing essays for class; it just came easily to me. 

When I first started at GCSU, in all honesty, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I felt a little lost, and my creative spark was fading. 

Through a good friend of mine, I got involved with GCSU’s university newspaper, The Colonnade. Over the past two years, I have risen from a contributing writer to Opinion Editor to Editor-in-Chief. 

I am not over-exaggerating when I say that being a part of The Colonnade was the best decision of my life. There, I unlocked my potential and my passion for journalism that six-year-old Delaney was so insistent on was reinstated. 

Now, I am thrilled to be able to exert that passion and creativity onto The Covington News. I am looking forward to working with this amazing team and learning all I can from this experience. I have a lot of hope looking into the future and am truly grateful for the opportunity. 

I am delighted to have the chance to work closely in this community and to be able to keep people informed. I am hopeful to get people excited to read the paper because I am certainly excited to write for it. 

Delaney Derry is a summer correspondant with The Covington News and a student at Georgia College & State University. Email comments to news@covnews.com.