Journal 38

Job Shadowing. So last Thursday I went job shadowing at News Channel 20 in Springfield with Sabrina, and it was quite the interesting experience. We had two sessions--one from 10:00 to 12:00 and the next from 3:30 to 5:30. During the first session, we showed up and went in the entrance area and the receptionist told us that the reporter Rebecca Clark that we were supposed to shadow wasn't actually there that day and wouldn't be at all because she was in Champaign. That was a pretty major set back. Another man came in and told us he would take us back with the other Plain's students shadowing--Daniel Plunket and Michael Campbell. So we were ushered through a long hallway to a workroom with some cubicles where we were introduced to several people in the office. When we first came in, a woman took us and introduced us to some different people. We were introduced to a man named Steve, and he told us about his job. He organized stories and kept up with police scanner and what-not, and also took calls from people who wanted to tip News Channel 20 off for good stories. He was kind, and we talked to him for a while and asked him some questions. Because our job shadow reporter wasn't there, we just kind of passed around to different people who had time to talk to us. After talking with Steve, a pho-tog (photojournalist) took us around the station and intoruduced us to some new people. He showed us his equipment and explained his day, then he took us to the main control room where we met two new guys, one was named Ed Janik. Anyway, we spent a lot of time with them, and they were extremely helpful. They were actually my favorite because they gave some great insight on the different jobs in journalism. After that we got to watch the miday show done live. That, i will admit, was pretty cool. We got to see the studio and see all the cameras and talk to the reporters. Next we talked to another pho-tog who showed us the editing process of the video clips and interviws we see on our own TV's.  After that, our first session was over. So we got a break and then we returned at 3:30. The second session had some plusses and minuses. We got to see Jeremy, the sports reporter, and meet Chantel, another reporter. Chantel let us follow her around the office a bit and explained to us how journalism is a constant press for time. She told us all the things she had to accomplish and the small amount of time she actually had to do them. She was pretty stressed out about this,  but she was nice enough to talk us through it. We got to meet another reporter named Vince. I didn't like him. He kind of 'rubbed me wrong.' There really wasn't a lot to say about him. He didn't impress me and he was kind of overbearing on telling us all the hardships of journalism. He was less than encouraging. Anyway, we ended our visit on a good note. We got to talk to a producer named Michael and he loved his job and was really open and encouraging!

Journal 37

When I hear jazz, I see a restaurant in New Orleans. Because Jazz is best known there, that’s what i think about. I see a huge restaurant, teeming with crowds of people. They keep filing in, and as they do, they marvel at the many happy faces surrounding them. Families and friends lounge in chairs at neat, simple tables, joking and laughing, their mouths wide with smiles. Their clothes are an array of color: Blues, greens, browns, mahogany, bright reds and gold. Women have swooping dresses that gracefully lay on their shoulders, and men have dashing, black slicked suits. The children dress playfully. Little girls wear summer dresses, their feet clicking with little black flats, and young boys wear suspenders, their anxious thumbs pulling on the gleaming straps.  Waiters dance through isles, their hands filled with trays of warm, delicious, steaming food, their hair pulled back in tight buns. The sweet spicy smell of cajun wafts through the air, and people greedily dig into their meals and moan at the wonderful taste. Everyone is moving and lively, and the room is loud with excited talking. The musicians dance and sway to their tunes, their bodies swinging with the jazz in smooth intervals. One of the trumpet players jokes with the crowd. He jumps off the stage, tapping through isles, tip toeing between seats, his feet moving like butter through the swarms of audience members. He stops at one family, a mother and father with their two children, both of them bouncing on the parent’s knees. The children laugh and giggle as he makes funny eyes at them, and his toes click on the tile to the beat of his music. The lead player calls him back, and he turns, smiles through his mouth piece, and makes his way back to the stage. The crowd laughs as the lead player pretends to scold the renegade, and roar as the lead man begins to copy his movements. As the night continues, people leave and more come. They meet up in the street, chortling happily at bumping into each other, and talk above the music and laugher that plays behind them.  Even the moon listens. 

Journal 36

 " Be what you would seem to be. Or, if you would like it put more simply: Never imagine yourself to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what  you had been would have  apperaed to them to be  otherwise."--The Duchess, Alice in Wonderland.  (I know this line off the top of my head becasue i had to memorize it because i'm the Duchess in the play and i thought it was appropriate)  Even though the Duchess makes little to no sense here, the message is still there. Duchess is telling Alice to be herself, which is one of the most important thing you can do. It's really hard to be yourself sometimes because no matter where you are or who your with, you always feel like there is pressure on you. Everyone is afraid of what everyone else thinks of them. It's just a fact. People get scared of judgement, so they try to withold their true selves sometimes to escape embarrasement or the possibility of being disliked by others. The truth of the matter is, if you aren't real with people, then you are lying to them. Everyone does it. If you meet a brand new person, and you want to seem a lot different than how you really are, that is a normal response. But even so, you should do your best to stay 'real' with them and "be what you would seem to be". Be who you are. We all put on a face sometimes. When i meet a stranger, i appear to be shy and modest, when in reality, i'm a lot more energetic than that. But that can't be confused with 'lying' about who you really are. Being yourself also depends on who you are with. If i'm with my family at home, i consider that my true self. With them, i'm comfortable, and i don't care what they think about me because i know they allready love me. That love is permenant, it will always be there. They can hate me for a day, but deep down they still love me the way i am. With other people, there is no 'permanant' love. There is only a judgement of others as they determine if you are the person they want to befriend. As you get to know them, they get more comfortable with you and you bond. Another thing is, if you aren't youreself with someone from the start, and then you suddenly feel like changing, it really tends to freak people out. I'm a very complex person myself, and i have my moods, and my 'personality' changes depending on who i'm with. In one class i'll be kind of quiet or shy if i don't know the people in there as well. But if i'm in a class where i'm very familiar with the people and they're "my kind" of people--or people who i get along with well, then i tend to be a lot more like myself. The person i'm my complete and utter self with is honestly my sister Faith. Faith and i have grown up together. Like, almost every second. I don't remember not having her because we're less than a year apart. Anyway, we've done everything together and gone through the same things. We know eachother so well--so well that if we get in a huge fight, all we have to do is leave eachother alone for a little while, then we come back together and it's like it never happened. We don't have to apologise becasue we knew were both sorry. Anyway, i feel like i'm my complete and utter self with her because i understand that she likes me the way i am. I think everyone should have a friend that they are that close with.

Journal #35

While reading the Declaration of Independence essay i wrote back in September, I noticed  things that i did wrong. As it to my Whitman essay, i came to the conclusion that  my Whitman essay had an  obvious superiority over it. It's crazy! I wrote my Dec. of In. essay back in September, and now it's March, and i beleive i have really improved over this amount of months. First of all, the Dec. Of In. essay was not professional at all. I used the words "me" and "I" throughout, and did not pay attention to the formal writing style in any way, shape, or form. The writing was alright,  and i did have support for my ideas, but it did not have the same feel as my Whitman essay. It's almost like a different person wrote it. That, to me, is an amazing change. Mainly because i remember writing the Dec. of In. essay and i thoguht it was really good. Now i know that it was only amature work. I have improved my writing so much since then. I think that overall reason for this change is practice. Another thing i noticed was that in some places in my Dec. Of In. essay i was not confident. I wasn't being a professional informer. The essay had a feeling of nonchalance. I personally would never use it as a source for information or criticism if i was someone else. I just didn't sound STRONG as i wrote it. Maybe it was lack of passion or a lack of understanding, but i really did notice the difference in the feel of both . The Whitman essay, on the other hand, i believe has more unique wording. It just sounds more right to me. It sounds more professional, and has a different overall feel than the Dec. Of In. essay.Another reason i believe they are different is that i have practiced writing essays over these months and i have learned how to make them better.