It’s difficult to say when one becomes an adult.  Growing up, you hear adults beginning sentences with, “When you’re an adult…” but no one ever tells you exactly when that is.  Perhaps we don’t know because there is not an exact moment, but rather a series of moments that lead to a point when you reflect on your life and think, “Here I am.”

I have recognized my own steps to adulthood in the past.  The recognition usually occurs as a realization; I’ll be reading a magazine article, for example, and understand a joke or a reference that I would have never understood or appreciated as a child.  I laugh and think, “Here I am.”

I think it is the same process for journalists.  We start out as students, nervously gripping our ballpoint pens and fresh notebooks on the first day of our first journalism class, waiting to scribble down every bit of knowledge that will be imparted to us.  We’re desperate to become more than writers.  We want to be the ones in the front row, two steps ahead of everyone else, asking the tough questions and giving the public the answers.

We want to be journalists, but until we are, we remain journalism students.  So at what point does a journalism student realize she is a journalist?

Perhaps when she attempts to get press access to the biggest presidential rally in the state and succeeds.  Perhaps when she asks to interview people at the rally and they take her seriously.  Perhaps when she shows her credentials at the door and gets ushered in with a smile.

Perhaps when she is standing at the front of the press box holding the digital camera that was a high school graduation gift, surrounded by people with professional cameras boasting huge lenses and lights, and being questioned by no one.  Perhaps then she thinks, “Here I am.”

So here I am - here we all our, on the ride of our lives.  We’re covering the most exciting, historic election ever and being taken seriously for the first time.  At least I am.

I’ve heard a lot of adults criticize young people for their lack of participation in many things, but mainly in politics.  Why should adults expect young people to participate if they know they won’t be taken seriously?  Young people are participating in record numbers in this election, especially in their support for Barack Obama, yet some people dismiss Obama’s popularity because of just that: “Oh, that guy, he has the youth vote.”

That’s right.  And the youth vote counts just as much as your vote.

The Clintons are being criticized by bloggers for courting the votes of superdelegates, particularly the vote of 21-year-old superdelegate Jason Rae from Wisconsin.  According to The Plank blog on The New Republic Web site, Rae has had breakfast with Chelsea Clinton and has received a phone call from Bill.

A few examples of the comments on this blog:

…a 21-year-old superdelegate?!? These are the people that could be deciding the Democratic nominee? How do you get to be a SD when you’re barely old enough to drink?

Seriously, a 21-year-old superdelegate?  How is this possible?

A 21 yr.-old-Superdelegate? It can’t be true. Where is the list of superdelegates? Alexander became king when he was 20. Maybe Jason Rae is some kind of super human anointed by the gods…or maybe his dad’s a billionaire.

An ABC News story reveals the answers to these questions:

Rae was elected as a DNC member at the Wisconsin state party convention in June 2004. He was 17 years old at the time but there are no party rules that say a DNC member has to be of voting age. Rae ran against and defeated the president of the state firefighters’ union and a state legislator.

Yes, he is a 21-year-old superdelegate, and a lot of people won’t take him seriously simply because of his age.  He is my age, a junior in college, and while I know I wouldn’t be able to be elected as a DNC member and become a superdelegate, I consider myself to be an informed voter - quite possibly more informed than my parents.  I don’t doubt that Rae is just as informed as anyone else, if not more informed, about who should be the next president.  I resent the fact that so many people think he cannot possibly make an informed decision because he is a young person.

However, I really appreciate those who have had the opposite mentality about our group of students.  These are the people that take us seriously, that believe there is value in what we are doing, and believe that we can do a good job regardless of the fact that we are young.

I’m talking about Jeff Giertz, who got us press access for the Obama event; all the guest speakers we have had, who have encouraged us to get our stories and have offered their help; Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, who said on the radio that student journalists are still journalists; the Daily Kos readers who left positive comments on our professor’s blog and who read our site; and Hank Thomas, who was in charge of the Sammamish Plateau Democratic caucus that Liz and I attended, and who gave us such a great welcome and was happy to update us the entire time.

I have enjoyed everything I’ve done for this class because people have taken us seriously.  I felt like a journalist rather than a journalism student while covering the Obama rally and the caucus.  I have been focused on reporting and creating multimedia content for the site rather than focusing on what my grade will be.

I am, for the first time, excited about a class because it is more than a class; it is a high dive into real journalism, a chance to spend more time on my feet talking to people than scrunched into a tiny desk listening to a lecture, a chance to post content online for thousands of people to read rather than turning a story in to a professor, only to have it see the inside of a briefcase and then a recycling bin.

I know I’ve reflected more on my feelings than my actual experiences covering the Obama rally and the caucus, but I feel like my caucus blogs and rally videos convey my experiences pretty accurately.  Those experiences were exciting, but what is more exciting for me is a new perspective on myself.

I started this class doubting that I could even get in because it was full.  Once in the class, I started to doubt that I could keep up with the fast pace.  Now I wish I hadn’t been so doubtful and been more confident from the beginning.

Going forward, I hope that other people will not doubt us as journalists either, and will instead be confident that they can read our site and know that they’re not reading our “homework” - they’re reading our work.