Change has been a recurring theme on this blog for reasons of personal development and growth and for also being a dramatic late teenager.
Now, i’m two weeks away from being 20 and I still feel like my sweet sixteen was last week.
This semester, being a month in, has brought on so many challenges and opportunities that i’m actually seeing myself from the outside saying “wow.”
The same person running the show now, is not the same hood-rat chasing around petty drama.
Some people don’t experience actual events that are likely to happen in the future at a real job, but I have already encountered this. As a journalist, with news being news and ever-changing; you never know what cards will be dealt. But, when it comes down to how close I am to real thing, my priorities are sorted and generate a journalism cap. Right now, the cap comes on and off quite frequently.
For some reason, the stars aligned one night and decided that writing would take me on as a thinker, which lead to reporting and this is now my life.
Yesterday, I was asked essentially how I encountered my career path. Naturally [and secretly], I was dying to say that I idolize Carrie Bradshaw’s fictional character by living the fabulous writer life in Manhattan, but who says that to an actual reporter…
Journalism found me through my love of writing and it consumes my life. We [student journalists] were all warned that this would land us a job and that AP style would become second nature to us, but who would have ever believed you’d learn something in college?
Side-note: I met two journalists from Pakistan yesterday, and they were awesome. There are also two Chinese exchange students in my night class and they teach me more about China than any textbook.
This past week (it’s only Wednesday) I’ve learned more about my career, my friends, and my personal potential than I ever would have in a semester or a year. It takes controversial situations to scare you out of your skin and use resources to get stitched back together.
I’m grateful for my internal balance and organization, because without serendipity, i’d be in a whole. In other words, I have gained a lot of trust for myself in handling situations. I never thought that i’d be able to react to quick situations, but my brain has been challenge to act on command, rather than spending hours preparing.
Interning at the Times Union this summer was certainly a large part of helping my inner journalist grow up.
All-in-all, I’m thrilled to have landed where I did, and no crack in the road will cause me to fall.
Apologies for the online absence.
Visit beacon.mcla.edu to read my weekly health columns!
Meanwhile, enjoy some Berkshire County foliage at facebook.com/advencephoto
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