As a high school journalism student, one of the things I looked forward to every school year was attending national conventions.

These conventions consisted of breakout sessions and workshops for students to learn how to become better journalists. In addition, there were keynotes featuring big-name journalists and onsite write-off competitions, the latter of which were judged on the spot, with winners being recognized at the end of the weekend.

During my high school career, I attended three conventions in Phoenix, Portland, Ore. and San Diego. While I had done quite a bit of traveling prior to this, these trips were the first time I really traveled by myself as a teen. Sure, we had chaperones on the trip, but my parents were not among them.

The chance to spend time in another place with my friends, with limited adult supervision, was something I’ll always remember. Outside of our convention time, we figured out how to get around, explored the cities and learned how to be responsible for ourselves.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend another one of these conventions — but as a chaperone.

I’ve been acting as a co-adviser for The Hawkeye news magazine at Mountlake Terrace High School — my alma mater — for the last year or so, and as co-adviser, I was invited to chaperone a group traveling to Washington, D.C. for the Journalism Education Association’s national fall convention.

Having never been to our nation’s capital, I jumped at the chance to visit the other Washington.

Thinking back on the high school conventions I attended, I just have to say, experiencing things from the other side — as an adult — was interesting (to say the least).

First of all, trying to keep a large group of people organized in a strange new city will try even the most patient of people — and I am not one of those people. When those people are teenagers, it seems nearly impossible. If it weren’t for the group’s adviser and our third chaperone (one of the students’ mother), I don’t know if I would have made it back to this Washington with my sanity. After this past week, my admiration for teachers has grown at least tenfold. I don’t know how they do it without breaking down every few hours.

Second of all, while organization may have been a challenge, it was great watching the teens interact with each other as we visited sites such as the White House and the Capitol. As excited as they may have been to be traveling on their own, they also made sure to look after each other — at least most of the time (these are teens I’m talking about, so there were moments when they got distracted by one thing or another). This gave me hope that the future generation may not be as selfish and self-absorbed as they can be perceived to be.

And finally, I was beyond impressed with how seriously these students took the convention and journalism in general. They would plan together which sessions to attend and if there wasn’t anything they were interested in, they would attend a session they knew would benefit the publication as a whole. That way, they could report back to the students who couldn’t attend. Reflecting back on my convention experiences, I don’t think I was as committed of a student.

During our trip, we also got the opportunity to visit three newsrooms: The Washington Post, Politico and NPR. We also visited the Newseum, a museum championing the First Amendment through the eyes of the media. Needless to say, we all geeked out during these visits. For someone such as myself, who has been in journalism for several years, it’s easy to understand the significance of the Post and the exhibits at Newseum. But I was pleasantly surprised to see the students get it, as well. They were just as excited and took things just as seriously as any adult would — making me hopeful and optimistic about the future of journalism.