My practice: Telling rituals

As a journalist embedded in the style bureau, I was faced with the difficult task of sharing details of sacred rituals across the country - in using only a few hundred words.

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"The big central crop is known as makua," Miki'ala Pua'a-Freitas, owner of a taro farm in Hawaii, told me. Makua is a term for "relative" in Hawaiian culture. "All offshoots, these are called keikis, and, you know, we're all offshoots of our parents," she said.

I knew taro was a sweet, earthy root vegetable popular in boba drinks and desserts. But I had to listen carefully to follow Ms. Freitas as she described her sacred value to Hawaiians.

It was mid-September, and speaking with Ms. Freitas was one of my first in-depth interviews as a reporter at the Styles bureau. As part of the New York Times onboarding program, I had left my role as Times press assistant for a short time to delve into Styles and its world of fashion reviews, celebrity profiles, taboo subjects. and fascinating facets of society. The goal of the onboarding program was to learn how to become a great journalist by honing my interviewing skills, storytelling techniques and style and knowledge of The Times over the next three months.

So When Ethan Hauser, a desk editor and my mentor in the program, asked me if I'd like to help with a series about different rituals in America and the people who practice them , I was happy to contribute.

Image Reverend Terry L. Marg has a replica of his chapel in Jackson County, Wis.Credit. ..Alessandra Sanguinetti for The New York Times

ImageCustom cars known as slabs parade on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Houston on Sunday.Credit...Colby Deal for The New York Times

The digital project, which was published online last month, gives readers a look at practices such as Mrs. Freitas' taro harvest in Hawaii, ocher mining in Utah, and a church service at a monastery in New Mexico. Ethan described the project as a way to document rituals across a country that had developed strange new ones, like masks and social distancing, during the pandemic: Times photojournalists photographed 12, and reporters conducted interviews, then wrote short vignettes to accompany the photos.

I was commissioned to interview and write about several people, including Christian McGee, who proudly participates in a Cajun Mardi Gras race in Louisiana that dates back to the 19th century; Adonia Lee, a Washington cabinetmaker who infuses traditional elements of her Makah heritage with modern materials and techniques; and Alice Liu, second-generation owner of a shop in Manhattan's Chinatown that sells traditional altars used for ancestor and god worship.

Before joining the Times as a press assistant, I had worked as a local reporter in San Diego, my hometown. I had written a few articles for the Times while I was working...