This stuff is tough

People are freaking out around me.

My classmates have constant looks of terror and anguish on their faces when they discover they need to go out and get more interviews, meet more deadlines, yadda yadda yadda.

I'm with them. At the same time, I have to constantly tell myself not to be the biggest baby on the planet.

"This class is Jouranlism 2? Not Magazine Writing? What? I wanted to take this class because I want to learn how to write for Vogue! or Cosmo! or People!"

Surprise kids. Should've gone to beauty school for that. Or, "How to write celebrity gossip 101." They might offer that at some other school.

I think the problem with college journalism classes is that a lot of students take them, thinking they'll have to write easy feature articles about book reviews, movie reviews, or any of that other "entertainment" reading. Especially at Assumption. People don't want to leave this pristine bubble to go get "real" interviews with "real" people and "real" professionals. The ones on campus won't cut it because we're familiar with them.

Hey. I'm to blame too. All I want to do when I get back from my internship or from my classes is sit down with a 3 Musketeers bar and watch the Gilmore Girls gossip about going to Yale and Lane's latest crush, not make a few phone calls to other professors at other campuses, or hunt around online for better interviews. I have to resist the Gilmore temptations because those are never going to get me anywhere in this world. It'll just give me a few extra pounds and bad grammar.

Our feature articles were tough to do. I went home last weekend so I could concentrate on how I wanted to pitch my story. I knew if I stayed on campus my roommates would bug me to go out drinking, or to push my work to Sunday night. I know it's not perfect, and I know that because I sat in class nervously tapping my shoe on the ground, waiting to see if the professor would call my name next to have my article be peer reviewed in front of the whole class. One girl had already gotten ambushed for not having a great lead. I was next on the chopping board.

Thankfully my wrath might not come until tomorrow....

Anyway, I can't say that I'm not learning. All my life I've been pushing myself to be more outgoing, to get out there in the world and uncover something incredible, dive deep into a story someone's been too afraid to do. I want to hide behind a curtain way too much, and my classes and internship this semester are finally telling me to brush my hair out of my face and look people directly in the eye and ask them the important questions.

"So tell me, why do you cheat and lie?"