I wrote things for the school’s newspaper, and - like all teenagers - I dabbled in poetry.

Colbert is recalling an ordinary, formative stage of adolescence—testing identities through writing. By pairing “the school’s newspaper” with “dabbled in poetry,” he contrasts structured, public-facing prose with private or experimental self-expression. The aside “like all teenagers” adds self-deprecating humor and normalizes the impulse to write verse as a common rite of passage rather than a grand artistic calling. In a broader sense, the remark frames his later career in performance and satire as emerging from early habits of observation, voice, and craft: journalism for audience and accountability, poetry for play, feeling, and experimentation.