Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Location: dorm room
Mood: Let down, but hopeful
What I'm Reading Now: Too many books to count
I think there comes a time in every person's life when their dreams and life goals are shot down to the point that one wonders what the point of having them ever was. That certainly happened to me today when I went to this English department alumni panel. The group of four former students were supposed to tell us English majors how they managed to find well-paying jobs with an English degree (which, they claim, is quite an oxymoron). During the Q & A session, I asked if they had any tips for those of us wanting to go on to graduate school. They asked me what I wanted to study and I told them: a masters in writing, then my doctorate in 19th century British literature.
I think they honed in on the literature bit more than the writing because what followed was a series of comments about how people with doctorate in English have a very hard time finding jobs. I won't name the specific comments, but what it all boiled down to was that I would be wasting my time studying literature and would never get a job no matter how qualified, smart, and/or resourceful I was. Ouch.
Needless to say, I left that luncheon feeling like I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out again. However, it also forced me to look at my career goals and ask myself, "If I can't be an English professor, what else could I do with a masters degree?" I don't know if I've said this before, but I want to go to Emerson college for graduate school and enroll in their writing and publishing program. So this got me thinking that, if the college teaching thing doesn't work out, I could still go into the publishing industry. There we go, problem solved. I've since looked for more colleges with a graduate program in publishing and found a few interesting choices.
So the lesson of this experience is this: sooner or later our dreams are bound to get shot down by someone. The real test is though is how one reacts to this reality check. Do we throw our dreams out the window or find another, better way to achieve them?
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Location: Publications Office
Mood: calm
What I'm Reading Now: Same books as the last entry, plus "The Country Girls" by Edna O'Brien (for class.
I can honestly say that one of the best things about college is that you have the opportunity to learn things about yourself that you wouldn't have known otherwise. For example, I swore that I would never become a middle school teacher (like I wanted to in 9th grade) because I hated the idea of teaching the same lesson seven times a day much less having to listen to the same student answers and/or presentations. But now I've discovered that what I want to do most is be an English professor (quite a step up from middle school teaching) and I can see myself standing in front of a class talking about, say, the Dickensian ending in Ann Radcliffe's "The Italian" (read the book and you'll see what I mean).
So, for the past few weeks I've learned even more about my skills as a leader. Like I've said before, The Advocate is a big part of my college life, second only to schoolwork. I've been a part of the newspaper every since the third week of freshman year, so one can't say that I haven't paid my dues and worked my way through the ranks. Thus, it would seem likely that I would become the editor next year. You could that its my right, given my seniority over the other staffers and my hard work and dedication.
But, when it came time to apply for the job a few weeks ago, I decided not to. I realized that it wasn't what I really wanted. I was and am happy with my current position as A&E editor, and even if I had accepted the offer I don't think I could have done a great job and lead the newspaper to greater heights. Some people think I'm crazy for doing this, and they say I'll regret the opportunity later. They're possibly right, but for now I feel that I've made the right decision.
I know in my profile I advised freshman to take advantage of every opportunity you come across, but as I've learned this semester by learning more about yourself, you also learn that not every opportunity is right for you. What's more important is knowing your limits and paying attention to what will make you happy at the end of the day.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Location: Dorm room
Mood: Excited for spring break
What I'm Reading Now: I'm having a Jane Austen marathon by reading "Emma" (not for class!) and "Northanger Abbey" (for class) at the same time.
So I have to say that, besides schoolwork and anything academics-related, my biggest commitment on campus is the Advocate, where as i know its said in my profile, I'm the arts and entertainment editor. Its literally become my home away from the dorm away from home (get it?). Thus, I decided to give you readers a good idea of how fun albeit time-consuming this job by going through a sort of day in the life of an issue type of thing (yeah, doesn't make sense to me either). Here it goes:
Though production takes place mostly on Tuesday nights, the whole process really begins Monday afternoon, so I'll start there.
Monday, 3:30 PM: I enter the office, which is located on the bottom floor of the student union. Usually no one else is there at that moment, which I like because I get the most done when there's peace and quiet. I go to my desk in the back corner of the large room and go through any mail I've gotten in the past week. This mail is usally press releases from various places on upcoming events. but once in awhile we get a promotional CD from an up-and-coming band. I toss out any releases where the event's date has already passed or will be old by the time the next issue comes out. I save any interesting ones on my desk for later.
3:40 PM: I notice that the pile of news releases on my desk has gotten a little tall over the past month, so I sort through the pile and end up throwing a bunch of them away. Then I get ready all the assignments I have to give out ready. This involves writing down on notecards and/or printing out any basic information on the subject (press releases really come in handy here). On the same notecard, I write down the due date in big numbers (so the staff writer doesn't forget) and any additional people they may want to contact. This whole process usually takes a long time not because I have alot of stories to give out but because I usually get sucked into checking my e-mail and getting some of my homework out of the way.
4:15 PM: Some of the other section editors trickle in along with staff writers (like any business, we have a few guys and gals who show up every week, eager for a story). We talk about each other's weekends and joke around like we always do. The office has this big bulletin board next to the photo editor's desk where we write down anything random or silly that someone has said. Chances are that there will be more "quotes" on that board before the meeting is over.
4:30 PM: Meeting time! We used to start every meeting with a critique of the previous week's issue, but for some odd reason we don't do that anymore (though I've been told it'll make a comeback next year, so stay tuned). Thus we get right into story assignments. Lee, our editor, goes first with any general news assignments. Though he won't admit it, he also loves the feature-type story (his term, not mine), such as if college is really hard enough for students or the role of pornography (if any) on campus. So this week, he pitches a story about which student organization has the most power at MSUM and what determines that power. I go next, countering that while his assignments are serious, mine are fun. I pitch my ideas, continuing that they'll be fun and usually easy to do. Usually Lee and I are the only two people who regualrly have stories to assign, but Glenn, out advisor, often has an idea to throw in as well. Then the writers decide if and what they want to report on. I answer any questions anyone may have and that's the end of the meeting.
5 PM (ish): The stories assigned are almost always due the following Monday by 5pm. So it's around this time that I check the Advocate's e-mail account to see if all the articles for my page have been turned in. This week I only have two stories on my pages: one on the new CD put together by the music industry department and one on the upcoming Fargo Film Festival. The former is in the inbox, so I copy the text and place it on my page. Robyn, who is the sports editor but also has a lot of insight into the film studies department, is writing the latter and won't have it done until tomorrow. So I pack up my stuff and leave.
Tuesday, 3:30 PM: Back again in the office. By now, the photos for my page are usually done, so I can start setting up the layout. I also have two side columns I do almost every week: one is the KMSC Beat Box, which is a list of the top ten songs played on the campus radio station; the other is called "Artsy Alternatives" and its made of a brief description of events going on in the F-M area over the weekend. I set up "Artsy Alternatives" now, but I still haven't received the KMSC top ten so I'll have to wait. Robyn still in the process of working on her article, so i have to wait for that also.
4:45 PM: I have a night class on Tuesdays from 5 to 7 PM, so I usally leave around this time. I get out the first run (I guess you could also call it a draft) of one of my pages so that the copy editors can look it over while I'm gone (Robyn's still not done at this point, so I can't print out the other page). We get pizza from Papa Johns every week in exchange for advertising, so i grab a slice to eat on the way to class.
7 PM: Back in the office. Robyn claims that she's almost done, but while I wait I have corrections from the first draft of the other page. I make those edits and then print out the second run (there are three in all and then a fourth run that only Lee edits). Robyn has given me an estimat as to how long her article will be (at this point its more than 1600 words and climbing), so I have an idea of how much space to save for her. We have a stand-alone (aka feature) photo from the Battle of the Bands last Saturday, so I set that up along with a photo and graphic for the film festival story. By set up, I mean that I decide where the photos/graphics go and roughly how large they'll be. Heather, the photo editor, handles all the technical work that makes the photos look impressive.
7:45 PM: Second run of the non-film festival page is done. I make those corrections, which are considerably less than the first run, and print out the third run.
8:15 PM: Robyn is finally done!!!!!!!!!!! I place her article on the page, surrounded by the photo and graphic, and print out the first run.
8:34 PM: Third run of the non-film festival page is done. There's only one correction to be made, so I just hand it over to Lee.