My heart is full tonight. It's almost as full as my list of things to do before I go to sleep (will I even go to sleep? Who is
really to tell? Especially since, writing this blog entry is
not on the list).
I finally have been brought up to speed with life. Living in a dorm, the TV usually attached to a drowsy video-gamer, the newspaper non-existant, I have felt completely out of the loop. It started when I didn't hear about the hurricanes until a phone call with mom. It ended with a recent phone call with mom, who told me about some scandal involving leaks. This was the last straw. I needed to get re-attached. Even if it meant going to the Internet.
First I went to CNN.com, where I found a neat little bookmark feature that, when I click on it, it shows me the top stories, updated CONSTANTLY!! Okay, so I've wasted a good bit of time on this feature, but it's still quite fun.
But the most important feature I found, and this is what I'm REALLY excited about, is NBC Nightly News. Now, for free, NBC is letting people watch EACH DAY'S BROADCAST!! After 8 pm my time, I can watch the day's news according to Brian. This triangle of CNN, NBC, and Jon Stewart's Daily Show, each updated daily, keeps me afloat. Oh! I also get Entertainment Weekly in the mail. That's fun too.
So, my ambition to be a journalist, which has been the victim of a few attempted murders, has now received a wonderful boost. It's awesome. Speaking of which, my spirits were totally boosted today in my Communications class. I'll tell you about that.
Basically, this group made their presentation today and brought up the question, if high school journalists should be allowed to write a story that links salmanila to the school cafeteria. I first made the statement that it depends on the state, because, for example, my state California gives student journalists--even in high school--equal freedom of the press. I was quietly enraged that most people in my group thought that was silly. The general consensus was that high school journalists should not be givin equal rights. This makes absolutely no sense. Responsible journalists are not all out of high school, and there are countless journalists that are not responsible that enjoy freedom of the press. What an incredible display of ignorance.
ME: "Well, even in high school, freedom of the press applies."
SOME GUY: "But the government said no."
ME: "Not in California."
GROUP LEADER: "Well, California is a more liberal state."
UGH! So I sat and stewed for a while. Then, later (much later, because they went waaaaaaaaaaay too long), they posed a question about obsenity. The question was "what is obsenity?" As you can imagine, no one could think of an answer that was complete, so no one said anything. A few people tossed around some ideas, and I raised my hand and said, "You know, in the sense of broadcast journalism, I think that it's just a tough part of a responsible journalist's job to decide what content is obscene and what isn't. Not for shock value, but it's up to them to decide, it's part of the job." And the girl in front of me (she was in my own presenting group in the beginning of the semester) turned around and nicely said, "What a good journalist you'll be." For some reason, this tiny statement made a huge impact on my mood. For some reason, it was just the confidence booster I needed, not only to improve my feelings about the presentation, but also, on a much more subconcious level, to revamp my confidence in myself as a journalist. After being "let go" from the Record, after not being able to write for the Daily Universe, after being away from modern civilization, I was feeling low and not realizing how low I was feeling until this statement from an acquaintance raised me up before I recognized the depths I had sank to!
Anyway, just goes to show how far a simple compliment can go. Too many of those things go unsaid.
