What I've "soaked" up

I guess now I'm suppose to tell you guys what I've learned this semester in journalism. Hm. That's a good question. Well I've learned that there were great experiences in that class and there were frustrating ones were I was very much thinking of acting out violently, towards someone in-particular I'm sure you all know who I'm talking about. I honestly think that in-between the overly zealous Voice crew, the two passionate journalism teachers trying to slam every bit of information into our heads and my internship where I got to get my feet wet in the huge career pool that I wanted to swim in. With Tarmo teaching me everything he knows about crime reporting, taking me on Media-ride-alongs with the CHP and practically running the police blotter at the Pajaronian. In just this semester alone, I've learned and received a crash course in what a career in journalism is like. Then it came down to one simple question: is this *really* what I want to do with the rest of my life. And I didn't even need to think about it and answered back: yes. It is.

Meeting Brad's friend John Glionna, the L.A times correspondent, really made me want to get into journalism even more, being inspired by his stories and just about his career. For years I was holding onto an journalism idol who's been dead for three years, soaking up his work like a sponge, even trying to duplicated his gonzo style, but deep in my heart, I knew that wasn't possible. But meeting Glionna made me realize that if I'm going to expand in a career in journalism, I'm going to have to loosen my grip on Doc a bit and expand into something more than just being a Thompson fan. "I knew I was going to be a writer because I'm not good at anything else." I have a lot of the tools I need when I make the jump from Cabrillo to SAC State, but not before one more round in The Voice team. I'm praying that we get more people because it would such an mistake if we had to cut the program because of the lack of people interested. Hopefully Emily's cry for help in the last copy of the voice has rallied people to come and join in on the fun.

Despite what someone said about her, I believe Emily has done an amazing job, especially with the problems that came her way, she didn't crack under the pressure and kicked all our asses into gear to produce a great paper. I really hope that certain individual isn't in the class next semester and if he is, I'm going to tell him for him to be Editor-in-Chief and to do all the work himself because I'm positive that *no one* will want to work under him. So he'll single-handedly bring down the journalism department because of his paranoid everybody is out to get him attitude and the fact that he truly thinks that everyone is under him and when someone knows more than him, he thinks they're flashing around being "experts." *Shakes head* I'm surprised I've done this long before finally cracking down and hitting him over the head with a chair.