Good News!

Two pieces of good news:

Number 1: I’m updating!

Number 2: I love my internship, no…REALLY love it!

Check this out:

http://www.we-care.com/blog/?p=1530

How amazing?!

I love my job.

Yes, I’m going to shamelessly plug my new job.

But it truly is a wonderful website.

I work for www.we-care.com

And if you like online shopping, you will love this site.  It is a blend of the perfect marriage of shopping (which is always fun) and donating to your favorite charities (which I also love to do).

It is commission based, which means a percentage of a purchase at a partnering merchant site through our site (we have over a thousand merchants!) goes to a charity of your choice.  Best part of it all, you’re not even paying extra!  And we supply special coupons so you save even more on your favorite items.

Please check it out, it is a great organization, and I love being a part of the team.

Boom! Head shot!

Just wanted to add that yesterday I had my first head shots taken!  One of my best friends is a professional photographer (she goes to F.I.T, I call her professional because she is fantastic!) and she took the shots.  She’s going to get them back to me soon I will pick the one I like the best and voilà, my first professional head shot.  Excited to put it on this site, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  So glad I have great and talented friends.

If you would like to check her out I have her on my networking page, but you can click here to go to her official website!

One step back, three steps forward.

I know the title of this blog update isn’t the real cliché.  But I felt it was a good explanation of my struggle with writing this semester.

I had always been naturally good at writing.  Always done well in all my journalism related classes until my journalism class this semester.  The class shook me down and stripped my writing apart. 

At first, I was very upset over my grades and the fact that I thought I lost my ability to write.  But instead, I’ve come to realize I lost the person who wrote because she loved to.  And she’s just starting to resurface again.

But, to quote Chuck Palahniuk‘s Fight Club:

“It’s only after you’ve lost everything,” Tyler says, “that you’re free to do anything.” 

I left my last journalism class feeling more confident than ever.  I faced a lot of discouragement and intimidation this semester, but instead of coming full circle, I know I have risen above and beyond.

So, on this bittersweet day, I’m proud to say even through my failure and temporary loss of ability I have learned so much about what will make me a good writer.  And what I will do to become that person again.

I had the reminder today that writing is ‘my thing,’ in the early years of my elementary school life I was bullied to the point where I would fake being sick to not go to school, and when I did I would come home crying.  No little girl should have to go through what I had to endure for three years, but in it, I found my voice.  And although my words were very limited, I wrote.  And now my little girl spirit is back and I don’t want to stop writing.  The next time I stop writing the person I am will be dead.

I know what I have to do.  It’s my destiny.  This summer I will be reborn.  The match is lit once again.

Oh, and I will also stop using as many cliché’s as I just used.

President Barack Obama speaking before the Congressional Bipartisanship Dinner on May 2nd, 2011.

I think this little quick speech is incredibly powerful.  I feel that it’s going to help the division in partisanship in the government.  Nabbing Osama bin Laden was a priority for both parties, and hopefully it can mend the division between Democrats and Republicans.  It was about unity, and unity is something we haven’t really felt since we came together for 9/11 as a country.  A triumph and a tragedy. 

 If you can imagine I will be following the news closely for the next couple weeks.

Inspire

The nice thing about going to my school is an annual spring seminar that brings an esteemed member of the communication world to teach.

I could not be in the seminar class because I’m not an upperclassmen but I did have the privilege of going to several public lectures he had.  And also the guest professor spoke in my J2 class.

This person, John Larson, really renewed my faith in my dream.  I don’t want to write about his accomplishments but you can view them here.  He’s won many prestigious awards and has traveled the globe dozens of times.  But what most caught my attention is his passion.  His emotional connection to his stories grabbed me.  He was honest, compelling, and when he spoke to my J2 class this morning I could only humbly listen in awe of his great experiences, yet modest accounts of them.

He is the reason for this blog.  I am picking apart my thoughts and emotions about stories because it is what he does.  He has brought the humanity back to journalism.  And even though his résumé boasts  impressive accomplishments, he was most impressive to me.

What I learned from him is that you don’t have to take away your voice to tell someone else’s story, because it is your story too.  You can change the world with a powerful and meaningful piece of work.  And that’s all I really want to set out to do.  Be the voice for someone who doesn’t.  Protect the victims and expose the criminals.  Bring light to a seemingly desolate world. 

I hope I get the great honor of meeting John Larson again.  But, I hope it is a few years down the line, so that way, when I have a résumé flaunting the powerful stories I’m proud to have uncovered, I can thank him for motivating me in a time where I felt lost and confused.