Saying Sayonara to Senior Year

     Although I still have a semester left before graduation, I'll be spending it student teaching, making this effectively my last semester at Witt. Wow.
     How did three and a half years pass so quickly? I remember staying up late and ordering pizza with my friends, then eating it in the wide hallways of Myers Hall. I remember trying to study for finals with friends, but learning more about what happened at parties over the weekend than climate change or the pluscuamperfecto tense in Spanish. I remember "wolf-packing" it to the gym to relieve finals stress, then the same large group later walking to the CDR to replace some of the burned off calories with ice cream and pizza during Midnight Breakfast.
     This semester has been stresssful to say the least; each day I've counted down how long it is until the next break and weighed whether I would make it or not. Part of me feels a bit guilty because I haven't truly enjoyed my last real semester at Witt, but another part of me understands the stress and frustrations and is justified in saying "get me the hell outta here!" More than anything, I've been very frustrated with one particular teacher that has been challenging and not as supportive as I've needed. In addition to making me cry in class, this teacher has also made me second-guess my major that I hold most dearly and told me she didn't believe I could do an honors thesis if I didn't have the bulk of it written before spring semester started.
     Luckily, I leave campus tomorrow and will not be coming back until January. While I've had countless wonderful experiences at Witt, at the end of this semester I'm at a point where leaving campus is all I really want right now. I'm hoping my last semester will revive love I have for this university, but right now I'm just very tired and need the break. Although this is my good-bye post to senior year, it's not over yet and I'm hoping I can take the next five months and make more wonderful memories before I have to leave campus, not for break, but as a graduate.
   

Gaining Credibility As a Journalist

     Although I know I've grown a lot as a journalist in the past four years of writing and shooting photos for The Torch, I didn't realize how much other people have noticed that growth until the dance concert a few weeks ago. When a friend in the concert told me the dress rehearsal schedule, she also mentioned that Shih-Ming invited me to come early to take photos of dancers getting ready.
     This was such a big change from my first dance concert, where a nervous freshman stumbled into the seats, was asked to move, then was told if I didn't turn off my "flash," I would have to leave. The "flash" was really an indicator light that showed that the camera was focusing and adjusting for lighting, but I didn't want to say anything to make Shih-Ming more curt with me. I uncomfortable stretched my finger so that it would cover this light throughout the show. Once the show was over, I just left.
     For this concert, I sat down and was getting ready to take our my camera when Shih-Ming asked me to move. No big deal. She was taking video and wanted a clear shot of the dance floor. After the concert ended, she asked about my photos. I sheepishly responsed that I got some good shots and she smiled at me.
     Through photographing every dance concert, I built up a rapport with her. Even though I do not really know Shih-Ming, I feel much more comfortable around her now and feel like a more experienced and better-known photographer because of my experiences with her.

Student Blogging

     12 students lean over their computers. Some stare at their computer screens in focus, others joke, "blogging is sooo fun!" Fun or not, our teacher just assigned us to write one blog before class ends.
     This is Advanced News Writing and as part of our course, we're writing five blogs every two weeks. Topics run the gamut from human rights and street harassment to weekend parties and issues in athletics.
     One of my favorite things about this experience is reading other people's ideas and thoughts; I may not know a lot about baseball or football, but reading Luke's blog allows me to keep up with the big events. Even though we pride ourselves as being a very active campus, not everyone can be at every event. It really allows me to learn about things happening on our campus through other's eyes.
     As for myself, one of my favorite parts of this assignment has been being able to catalogue my thoughts and have an outlet with which to write. Sometimes something will come up where I'll be more comfortable writing my feelings or opinions rather than saying them. This blog has definitely given me an outlet for that as well.
     I think in the future this should definitely be kept for the course, but maybe give students a set number of blogs to have by the end of the course and have "check in" assignments. While at first I thought 5 blogs every two weeks was nothing, it's proven to be quite difficult now that my semester has really kicked into gear. I wish I would have written more when I had the time, rather than stressin to get them done on top of many other assignments.

Philadelphia Features

     Even though we spent a fairly short time in the city of Brotherly Love, I met a fair amount of people and was able to learn a bit about them just through brief conversations.
     Nick was born in New York and lived there for 20 years. He then went to Oregon for a year, but eventually settled in Philadelphia. He goes to school at Temple University and studies social work while working at a deli in Reading Terminal Market. He gave us samples of food and smiles everytime he came over.
     Another man currently works as a tour guide for a Ghost Tour in Philadelphia. He's lived in Philadelphia for many years and has worked as a tour guide for seven or eight of those years. Even though he likes his job, he dreams of doing improv comedy in Chicago. He has some family that lives there and joked that even though he hasn't been there in 30 years, he still loves Second City.
     A Ghost Guide co-worker went to college to teach English and even worked with 7th graders for a while. He changed his mind and has been giving tours recently.
     So many of these people have more stories than what I found out by talking to them for a few brief moments. I would love to delve into more feature stories, especially during traveling, and meet new people and find out their stories.

Long-Form Journalism and Why I Can't Wait to Get on the Road

     I went to a journalism session this morning all about long-form journalism and let me tell you, I can't wait to start writing! A teacher took a summer trip to show his students that there are stories everywhere; what started as a road trip turned into a collection of stories totalling 14,000 words.
     After graduation I will be going on two big trips: the Wittenberg Europe trip and a Canadian road trip with one of my best friends. Hearing story ideas and how to craft a long-form piece made me even more excited to try it. I think it would be a fun way to document the people's stories that I learn while I'm on the road.
     It also can turn into a fun challenge; the speaker joked that he could stop at every Dairy Queen on a certain road and interview people to put together as a story. Something like that would be really fun and almost like a bit of a road trip challenge for my friend and me. I'm already thinking of fun interview topics and different locations that I could find stories.

Creative Response to Luke's "Why Do Bands Change Their Sound"

     When I was in high school, I went to concerts almost every weekend. Whether it was a local show or a larger band playing a bigger venue, I was there and was as close to the front of the crowd as I could get. I'll always remember those nights, sweaty and sore, pressed up against other bodies, or a metal barricade, screaming out the lyrics to my favorite songs.
     These days, I don't have the opportunities (or the funds) to go to so many shows. I'm lucky if I go to a few concerts in a year, let alone in a month. When I think about the bands I used to see, I probably still know all the lyrics to the songs, but not any of the recent songs. This is because the band's changed their sound and I lost interest.
     Luke mentions that many bands "abandon their initial sound in exchange for a different, sometimes better or worse, sound." For some bands, this can be devastating for their record sales. Audience expect one sound or genre of music and get something completely different. For others, however, a new sound provides successful opportunities to explore different styles of music.
     All of this had me thinking about Bring Me The Horizon, one of my favorite bands when I was in high school. Way back when, they were considered a "metalcore" band from Sheffield, England. Their guitars were heavy and their vocals were a mix of high pitched screams and gutteral growls. I loved this sound and voraciously listened to all of their albums as quickly as they came out.

(Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

     This changed for me with the release of their third album, "There is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There is a Heaven, Let's Keep it a Secret." While this wasn't a bad album, for some reason I didn't connect with it in a way that I had with the other albums. I didn't really follow them for a few years; I listened to a few singles from "Sempiternal," their fourth studio album, but still wasn't really into them again. 

     Then a few days ago, I heard their latest sound "Drown." The lyrics really jump out to me and have made me more willing to come back to the band. The sound is different, but it's a good different. It's a lot softer, but part of that is because a guitarrist left the band and was replaced by a pianist.

     Even though I haven't listened to the band in a while, I'm coming back to them because of another change of sound. I think it's interesting how the changing sound of a band can have such a strong negative or positive effect.

Dying My Hair and Losing My Confidence All At Once

     I look like a mom. A 35-year-old mom that would fit right in screaming at her son to watch his dirty soccer cleats while clammering into my meticulous mini-van after his pee-wee soccer game.
     My hair is now about chin length and carrot orange and I look like a mom. Nothing against mothers, or orange hair for that matter, but when I'm a 21-year-old who went to the salon to get a chin length dark auburn lob and came out with this cropped carrot-colored mess, I think it's reasonable that my confidence is a bit shaken.
     I definitely try to be someone that focuses on inner confidence, but I just can't feel this do. I wanted to wait until the last day of break, but now I'm just wondering how possible it would be to run to the nearest Walgreens and do a dye-over.
     I don't think I would mind as much if this was what I asked for and was just a bit surprised by the length. That wouldn't be so bad, but just watching her cut away and trim my hair far past what I asked for was tough; seeing the color once my hair dried was even worse.
     This might just be a long-winded rant about how I didn't get what I want, but I'm feeling pretty low because of it. Here's hoping this hair will grow quickly and that I can find some cute fall hats to cover it up in the meantime.