1. By: Kelly Kobbe
Fame is what I use to describe Alex Jinkinson. He is young
in age and is striving to achieve his goals. Hard work and
patience is what you need to achieve fame, and Alex is do-
ing this exactly.
Alex is a young man of age 21 born the small town of
Sheldon Iowa. Alex loves singing and he wants it all. Alex
started off with singing lessons at age ten with his instruc-
tor Lewis Gruis of Sheldon Iowa. He sang at church, foot-
ball games, funerals and even weddings. He has an act for
talent that is bound to get his name out there. Accomplish-
ment is what Alex desires.
As Alex got older, he was privileged to sing at a Vi-
kings football game in 2011. Although it wasn’t the Steel-
ers, he said “it was still cool to sing for a pro football team.”
His first song released was titled, “I’ll Write You A Song.” I
was privileged to see behind the scene footage. I got to see
how many people it took to put a music video together and
how even in the worst weather condition you can still make
it work.
“Push hard and give it your all and you
will fullfill your dreams”
Small Town Talent

2. “Push hard and give it
your all and you will fullfill
your dreams”
AaronCarterandAlexJinkin
son
He has met many famous pop stars, his fa-
vorite was Aaron Carter. The best advice
Aaron gave him was, “never give up on
your dreams.” Dreams are something peo-
ple wish for and want to achieve. I felt like
this advice can be very useful to any human
being. Alex enjoys doing other activities be-
sides singing. He loves playing piano, going
to football games, fishing at his dad’s pond,
going out with friends to the lakes and being
with his family. He says the only hard part
about this career would be being away from
family for long periods of time. As Alex an-
swers this question he gets quiet. I asked him
whats wrong ? He answered with “ I feel like
I have missed out on so many family events
like birthdays and holidays.” Alex flies home
as much as he can. He had a break for 2 1/2
weeks so while he was down in Sheldon I was
glad I was able to meet with him.
In a couple more years Alex plans on
being on the top hits he wants to fulfill his fu-
ture and compete with the best, it gives him a
thrill and ambition. Every step Alex takes he
gets closer and closer to his dream. He hasn’t
given up on his dreams, these things take
time. Just as it takes time for you and me to
fulfill and accomplish our dreams and goals
in life. My favorite quote is “ if your dreams
don’t scare you they aren’t big enough.” This
can be related to anyone, dreams, and goals
shouldn’t be something so simple it doesn’t
give you a little challenge. If you want some-
thing so bad in life you will do anything to
achieve it, this is what i consider to be a great
goal or dream. Alex’s dream is to have it all,
his dream does scare him once and awhile
but he will do anything to push forward and
complete his dream!

3. Kelly Kobbe is a transfer student at STI.
“I strive to suceed and i push hard to achieve.” Someday she wishes to be working as a
commercial advertiser. She can’t wait to show others the talents she holds.
Photos taken by Hannah Jinkinson
“Push hard and give it
your all and you will fullfill
your dreams”
Alex’s perfor
manceinhishometownonSeptember14,2013
Talent is explained in so many ways,
sometimes it’s known as a gift someone has.
An example for alex would be singing. For
teachers it would be the knowledge they pos-
ses to teach younger men and woman. When I
asked Alex what his definition of talent was, he
told me, “ talent is the capacity for achievement
or success.” Some people say it’s where you
are born that makes you who you are today.
This isn’t true because even if you grow up in
a small hick town with nothing to do you can
still achieve your dreams. As long as you push
hard and give it your all, you will succeed.
A few weeks passed after I talked with
Alex and he already had to get ready to per-
form a live concert. He texted me to let me
know that a friend had video taped the whole
performance for me. It was very interesting
and I wanted to watch more. I remember hear-
ing and listening to Alex in high school albeit
then I didn’t know he had so much potential
and drive to push himself so hard to achieve
this much in life. When I watched that video
it made me realize that I want to achieve my
dreams too. I want to show people my talent.
I want people to know who Kelly Kobbe is.
When I compared me and Alex’s dreams and
wishes, they were both pretty similar, his was
just based around music and mine was and still
is based around
design. This doesn’t mean they were different
it means we both want something so bad in
life we will try our best to achieve it. Even if
others don’t believe we are good at something
we wont let them influence us. Even if we
fall sometimes, we will never let that keep us
down. We will always stand back up and push
ourselves harder to be ourselves and the person
we want to be in todays society.