“First and foremost I like to put my own personality in my writing,” Maxwell said. “I want to find stories that not only people care about but something that people can’t find every day. There’s always interesting people out there; you just have to find them.”

 

Maxwell would like to eventually run his own company. This quest for becoming his own boss began in seventh grade, as he sat as his desk and scribbled notes on many different topics. He said he would stay up late into the evening, watching documentaries and sports programs to obtain as much knowledge as possible.

 

It was at this time he began to take interest in knowing everything there was to know, what he self-described as “nosiness.” Maxwell’s dream of becoming a reporter began with searching the Internet and scouring books to gain as much information as possible on subjects such as sports, news, movies, music and technology.

 

However, his life was completely altered during the summer of 2012 when his grandmother died. Maxwell said that he used to play solitaire and UNO with his grandmother as a child. The two used to have long conversations that always made him laugh and feel positive. Maxwell said that after her passing he had a new outlook on life. He decided to let nothing negative affect him and to appreciate everything in life.

 

“That was tough, that was horrible,” Maxwell said. “I guess I learned not to take life for granted. I wasn’t really a downer, but I wasn’t really a peppy sort of person. I’m very optimistic now and I don’t get as flustered over things as I used to. I just like to go with the flow.”

 

This newly discovered optimism can be found in Maxwell’s extracurricular involvement at URI. He is a staff sports reporter for The Good 5-cent Cigar, co-hosts a show on RIU2 radio and works for the Student Entertainment Committee. He also plans on becoming more involved in each of these groups.

 

He said that being a member of these clubs has aided in giving diversity to his resume and it allows him to learn through experience. This hands-on development in his career can be seen as he starts work on his personal website in the coming months.

 

Though he did not want to reveal too much about his pet project, the website will definitely include news and human interest stories and columns with content that he could control and edit. While finalizing the idea was easy, the most difficult part was and still is finding an appropriate and cheap domain name.

 

Maxwell said that the selection process has taken such a lengthy amount of time because he wants to pick a diverse domain name; one that separates him from the rest of the news blogs and websites. An unsurprising trait for an individual intent on separating himself from the rest of the pack.

 

“It is a job I can be proud of,” Maxwell said. “Content changes every day. Regular people like me change that sort of thing every day. A story that impacts a lot of people, or something that is heart-warming or something that is heart-breaking, that’s the sort of thing that changes all the time. That’s what I love about journalism. The style may always be the same, but the content is always changing.”

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