Be the change you want the world [industry] to be

Lunch time at UMC is a little bit like that one scene from Fantasia in which the creatures of the night take over after the world goes to sleep, except there aren't any devils or dead things involved in this overtaking.

I'm not very fond of those things anyway.

As usual, my office is dark with only three light sources: my laptop, the computer provided by UMC, and the light that hangs below my bookshelf (I learned early on that I write better in the dark).

The only audible sounds in my office are the rapid twitter of the keys on my laptop and the electr0-industrial trance station I chose from Pandora.com (online radio station).

I just finished transcribing a 45 minute interview with one of the Child Life interns at Johns Hopkins and I'm feeling inspired by her desire to give back to the community/ do good.

I am also inspired to do good for the community and make the world a better place, so I'm going to make today's theme something that I've always believed in, but hope to apply to my time here and to my career: be the change you want the world to be.

I first saw this on a necklace in a clothing catalog when I was visiting my best friend during Winter Break. I identified with it because I understood that its message was to encourage people to become active members of the world community/ encourage them to do instead of think about doing. When I was a freshman in in high school, I became involved in activities that gave back to different communities and provided some sort of positive change to our state of being. Since then, I have come to believe that the only way for there to be change in the world is for its citizens to get up and make a difference in some large or small aspect.

What does community service have to to with journalism and editing? Quite a bit, actually. Journalists and editors influence/ reflect the thoughts, motives, desires, and actions of an institution or society; therefore, it is my job to engage others through valuable content. But so much of the industry is focused on getting better abs or talking about scandalous photographs of Michael Phelps; very few are focused on the things that really matter. What sort of rhetorical argument(s) are we making with articles like the Phelps articles? What does this mean to the world community?

Who profits intrinsically from making scandals? I don't think anyone does. I don't think a story is a good story unless it talks about a relevant, pressing issue (celebrity scandals don't fit into that category); gives you an itch to learn more; or makes you say, "whoa" at the end.

And like most Americans, my abs are in much need of improvement, so I don't think I would make a credible author for a fitness magazine. In the meantime, I 'm going to find other stories that are timely and worth the read.

It's what I do (literally).

Will work for food, money, and hugs

Instead of going to work on Wednesday, I chose/ was encouraged to go to the ISU Career Fair. It was a pretty disappointing endeavor because there was only one table out of 112 that wanted someone like me in their company. The rest of the tables were geared toward IT, business, criminal justice, and education majors.

I understand that you can only get so many people to RSVP, but there was a serious lack of diversity there. Forgive me for saying this, but the humanities get very little appreciation or notice in these venues, and it showed at the Career Fair. A lot of faces changed after I walked up to a recruitment table, shook the recruiter's hand, talked about my skills, and said I was an English major. It makes me wonder what people really know about English majors (It isn't all Beckett and Shakespeare).

One good thing came out of going to the career fair: I got my confidence and drive back. I had my resume looked at by someone in the Career Center, I tightened my cover letter writing abilities, and I'm going to work on interviewing. My cover letters to companies X, Y, and Z will go out on Wednesday, and I must say that I am VERY excited about that.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Hope is the name of the game.

Not a lot happened on Monday. I actually went home early because I had very little material to work with, and it didn't feel right to sit in my office and pretend to work. I did get the SYP article over to Kate, and she loved it. She said it was exactly what she needed, even if we didn't have the rapper. I'm sure we'll get him or her eventually, but it also makes me happy that I got it right after one return/ commentary from Kate (Communcations Specialist) and Brian (UMC Director).

I e-mailed Ogonna; hopefully I will hear back from her. I've got a lot of really good material from her, but I want to make her story more narrative. She had this cool experience in which she hit a home run in kickball in the fifth grade, and I think it would be flippin' sweet to open up the story with something like, "The sun boiled down on Ogonna Nnamani as she stepped up to the plate, awaiting the pitch..." We'll see where that goes.

If I were to take everything into perspective now/ evaluate how the internship is going, I would probably say that things are going well. I love the people I work with, I love what I do, and I actually get a little bummed when I have to leave for class. I'm in my element when I'm there, but I feel a little shred of sadness when I think about how slow the job market is for editors and writers.

This is the primary reason why I can't sleep at night. Most of the jobs are in New York, and though I've got the gumption to move somewhere else and start all over again, I really want to save it for when I can afford to move somewhere else.

What's a girl to do? Considering how tight the market is, I can exhaust my options very quickly (especially in Chicago). I'm not going to choke up because there is no point in choking up over something that is absolutely necessary. Perhaps the best option is getting my materials together, going to the Career Center, and making sure that I've crossed all my Ts and dotted all my Is before I put myself out there.

I'm going to look for jobs and I'm going to make it happen.

I believe in me.

I found the DJ, the rockers, and I'm waiting on a rapper. I'm surprised at how much of my day was consumed by phone calls, e-mails, and so on. And even though I should be used to it by now, it still astonishes me how quickly time flies when I'm doing my work.

I didn't complete everything I had set out to finish today--finish Ogonna's article, follow up with her, and edit the SYP article to style--but since everything is still on schedule, it's okay. I got a lot of material from the DJ and the Drummer I found through the people at WZND, our campus radio station. I also got in touch with the people I needed to get more details out of for the SYP article, which is grrrrreat for progress. I think today's lesson is that nothing is impossible no matter the challenges, especially if you're all coughy and stuffy like I've been for the past few days.

I think the other lesson of today is that no matter how ordinary we may be, we can all do extraordinary things despite our physical, mental, or situational limitations. I'm terrible at math; but writing, drawing, creating, reasoning/ logic, empathizing, memorizing, engineering, invention, and the ability to see past the surface of things are my extraordinary capabilities. The people I interviewed also have their own individual talents: Laroyce Hawkins has self-expression, Ben Swarz has music, and Brady Sullivan has emotional intelligence. It may not sound like much, but if you knew that Laroyce wants to act for a living, Ben wants to be a radio DJ, and Brady wants to help couples make the most of their lives together, it makes all the sense in the world.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what my hopes are for my own career, and I think I want to go with feature writing/ editing, educational publishing, B2B, or custom media. I don't mind doing news--I love to learn and talk about new innovations--but there's something more fulfilling in talking about or appealing to the human interest. B2B and custom media have that element too, but it's also very client-based, which is another one of my loves and individual talents. I really like geting in touch with people and see what they're about, what their likes and dislikes are, and eventually create a close enough bond to the point where they say, "Hey, why not?"

I got a lot of really good interviews that way, and I've also made some pretty big sales in my retail jobs. My [clothing retail] managers didn't like that I was chatting with the customers, but they were also the type of people who felt that the associates should do nothing but "sell" in a false and impersonal way--the same way that some people expect to get a good interview by simply asking questions, demanding answers, and not making their subject feel comfortable. Meeting your quota is important, but if you create a positive rapport with someone and really connect with them, then you create a higher chance of a) making a bigger sale b) creating repeat customers or even a) getting better quotes and b) building a better relationship with the world around you.

I'm pretty confident that journalism, customer service, and sales hold similar qualities. They're all trying to get at something--the headline, the dirt, the sale, or the satisfaction--and I think you can create the biggest difference/ best results by making people feel comfortable through the creation of a genuine rapport. If they think you're there just to sell or get the job done and have no rapport, they won't feel as comfortable and they certainly won't want to work with you. So instead of having a battery list of questions and a rigid agenda, I treat my interviews like conversations.

I started this approach a few months back when I was working for the Vidette. I noticed that a lot of people weren't comfortable with answering point-blank questions, so I started to talk to them like I was getting to know them casually. It worked: the interviews became more interesting and the articles got better. The only part I have to work on now is asking better questions--the kind of questions that cut deep into the mind and bleed buckets of information.

I am a better writer/ interviewer than I was 6 months ago. If you told me in June of last year, "Joanna, you're going to be interviewing people for articles your entire senior year," I would have told you that I didn't know the first thing about journalism. Quite frankly, everyone know a thing or two about journalism, and to put it in its own unattainable echelon is a mistake. Journalism is psychology, research, timeliness, strategy, networking, and following your intuition--all things I have done in previous positions or practice from day to day. I've picked up journo books from the library to become a better journalist, but a lot of them talk about things I already know, which is why I don't understand why the news editors at the Vidette create the perception that non-J students can't write articles as well as J students (one of the many reasons why I left).

Asking questions, failing, and learning from my failures/ accepting them are what have helped me get to where I am. This isn't to say that I haven't considered Medill, Syracuse, NYU, Columbia, U of IN, Goldsmiths, U of IL, Laval, or Stanford for grad, but I will argue that the foundations are better learned and understood through real experiences rather than classrooms (that's how I learned to reformat a computer, remove viruses, install hardware, and create a dual partition).

I don't regret being an English major in the slightest bit, and it shows in what I do every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at UMC. If I had chosen Journalism over English, I don't think I would have had the same sense of diversity, empathy, collaborativeness, gumption, or exposure that the English major gave me. I would have missed out on the 80 page paper I did for Dr. Justice's senior seminar (65 of those pages consisted of research and collation); I would have never learned how to become a better rhetorician; and I would have never refined my web/ graphics skills. All of these things have contributed to how well I do my job, so being an English major was beneficial.

But I also welcome suggestions from my superiors who were Journo majors. Kate and Susan have taught me a lot of techniques in the time I've been there, and I'm going to give them my all in return. I've already accepted that I am forever a student with the career path I am choosing, which is perfectly fine by me.

I'm sure it was well worth it when your boss tells you during a one-on-one Monday meeting, "Out of all the interns we've hired, you are the most confident and the most ready, and that's why we're putting you in the magazine."

That really means a lot in terms of where I am and where I want to be.

I love editing <3

I'm a real dish in Simpsons form, aren't I?

Yesterday was dominated by editing my first major major document since November (I edited my best friend's novel). Like a lot of things that come through our office, it was loaded with errors, misuses, and inconsistencies, but that's what copyeditors are for, right?

My favorite thing about editing is that I get to play detective and use strategy to polish a text into a priceless gem; and while most of the texts I edit are dry, riddled with errors, and limited to a small audience, they all hold the same importance as a document that is going to be seen by millions of people. I take a lot of pride in making things shiny, presentable, understandable, and interesting.

The FD brochure was a nice test of all the skills I've acquired from being an English major. I don't think I've used my CMS, my AP manual, or my dictionary as many times as I did yesterday, but it served as a nice refresher to the things I am supposed to know. The challenge also lay within the errors themselves: instead of being large, glaring issues of fact, spelling, and circumstance, they were things that you could easily miss if you had read the text more than once. There were also a few sentences that were too long, unreadable, unnecessary, or ungrammatical, but my purple pen made everything better.

Even though I've only done about 5 outgoing documents for UMC, I'm getting better at adjusting how heavily I edit a document. When I look back to that moment in March 2007 when I first posted my ads on the bathroom doors of Jeff4--or when I first began to write for a non-academic forum—I can see how much I have grown. I'm less afraid to ask questions, I work more efficiently, I use a lighter hand (unless the document has so many errors that I have to change it dramatically or send it back to the author to fix), I know what to look for, and I've learned how to edit/ write according to a style.

Going from AP to CMS to University style—Web site (ISU) instead of web site (AP) or website (general usage)—is still challenging since the changes are so slight, but it's absolutely necessary given that each corporation/ house has its own subjective style rules (though I wish everyone could use the CMS. It's a lot more informative and organized than the AP manual). Going from style to style also helps you realize that language and grammar are subjective, but style is style. If a set criteria didn't exist, I think it would be more difficult to communicate our needs with others, especially in the written form.

The latter half of the day was spent reworking my articles on Ogonna and the "State Your Passion" campaign. Ogonna is coming along well, but the SYP article is..well..interesting. Since I turned it in, I learned that our director wants me to get a comment from a rapper, a mix master, someone in a rock band, and an athlete. I can smell a rock band from a mile away, but I have no idea where I am going to find a mix master in rural IL. It’s pretty bizarre, but I’m still going to deliver.

Mojo Jo Jo and the celebrity interview

Mojo Jo Jo is a nickname I gained when I babysat a girl who was obsessed with the Powerpuff Girls. The name suits me well when I write, but the character--an evil genius--does not (even though I sometimes joke about being an evil genius).

The term "finding your mojo" was something that came with the PPG, went away, passed with Austin Powers, and somehow rediscovered when I had my first class with Gabe Gudding (a.k.a one of the coolest profs I have had). In Gabe's terms, "finding your mojo" means finding that spark that will inspire you to write voraciously and ingeniously, kind of like a muse. It can be extremely difficult to find unless I'm in an unusual place where I am without a pen & piece of paper or a computer.

As a natural communicator, my mojo is the center of my work, so it is extremely important for me to have it when I need it.

What is fascinating is how subjective this 'mojo' thing is and how different people find it. How do you find yours? Do you sit upside down in a chair and stare at an inanimate object until it comes to you? I run, take a shower, have a long nap, or write garbage sentences until I come up with what I want to say. It really depends on what type of environment I am in, but writing garbage sentences is usually how I do it.

It's somewhat difficult to process things when I'm writing about someone like Elie Wiesel because he is such a complete, rich person, but he is extremely humble. When Dr. Wiesel came to campus in October, I was elated to have the chance to write about him and even sit 10 feet away from him (he even brushed up against my chair on his way in O_O). I felt inspired the entire time I was taking notes during the small group discussion and wanted to write all 80 lines right then and there, but when I sat down in the newsroom with my editor, I choked. What did I have to say about someone who is so revered, but has remained so humble despite his accomplishments? Is it fair to write, "S/he is just a (wo)man"?

If you read my Wiesel article and were searching for star power, you won't get anything out of it. I hope those who read it realized that the point of the article is to show that people are people, and no matter who you are, you can also be extraordinary in your own unique way (and you don't even have to be famous).

I don't believe in celebrity; I just think some people are more well-known than others. This is really difficult for our society to accept, but we all age, we all learn, and in the end, we all die. The only difference that lays between us is what we choose to do with the time that we are allotted. Those choices can help us gain mass recognition if we know where to look and how to do it, so it's up to us to decide whether we want it or not.

For Ogonna, the difficulty lays in reflecting her down-to-earth, ultra determined personality and putting away my own personal excitement that such a person exists. For the past three weeks I have been sitting down at my desk--in the dark of course--and writing out sentences that sound great in theory, but are garbled when I see them on the screen. Maybe I should take a walk around the building when these things happen.

The writing process can be extremely painful, but I enjoy the challenge and the strategy of it. I love the conception, the burn to write, the challenge of making it new and inspiring, and seeing the tangible, finished project in a publication or in a professor's hand.

In truth, writing this blog is a part of finding my mojo and easing the pain of the writing process, so pay no attention to paragraph structure, punctuation, or any of the things that I even consider to be "important". Instead, think about the thoughts and other things that have come to be after I have finished sitting in the College of Business, about to brave the cold, rainy night for a plate of pot stickers.

Working from home

I had to take care of a few things in Chicago this morning, so I am working from my parents' house today. It's a different since I'm leaning on a 130 lb dog and I have a 19 year old cat wrapped up in the top half of my bathrobe (his favorite place) while I'm writing my article. It brings a new definition to multitasking.

The article is a profile on a grad student who is leading the Peru Project, a program that takes students to Peru, teaches them about the culture, and gives them an opportunity to help people. The cool thing about the project is that they get to go to my dream destination, Micu Picu, at the end of the project O_O . If I had the cash to go, I would be there in a second because a) I love doing community service and b) I looooooooove ancient ruins and anthropology.

Honestly, I feel like St. Francis of Assissi and Kurt Vonnegut in pajamas. It's comfortable because I get to work in sweatpants and an old t-shirt, but it's also a little uncomfortable because I've got two animals pleading for attention, pets, and snuggles (and it's really hard to pass up something cute and fuzzy...ieeeee!).

Feeling crotchety

I haven't had a full night's rest since Sunday, and it's really starting to affect my performance at work.

The problem is that I'm not sleeping enough, and it's not because I am incapable of getting to bed at a reasonable hour--I'm exhausted by 11:30--it's because my roommate watches TV like it's her full-time job (literally).

I'm one of those people who believes that there are better things to do with her time than seeking entertainment from a glowing box (even though I loooooove Family Guy and House). If I do watch TV, it's usually because I can't find anything better to do. I would rather take a nap or go for a run.

In our little corner of Hewett Hall, the TV is on from 7:30 a.m. until about 2:00 a.m. the next morning, which makes it extremely difficult for me to work, sleep, and reflect (and I can't turn it off or ask her to go into the other room because it will turn into a bigger ordeal than it really is). This means that my clothes get to spend more time in my room than I do.

I found it extremely difficult to focus today because I had only gotten about 3 hours last night, 4 the night before, and 6 the night before that. That, of course, sets me behind in work, which doesn't reflect so well upon me as an employee. It isn't any good because it contradicts my personality--I am not lazy by any means--and it's a real downer knowing that I can do so much better if I could just get a few more hours of sleep.

I asked my roommate once if we could turn off the TV when we go to bed. She fumed, scoffed, tore her sheets off her bed, and stomped out of the room. All I said was, "Is it okay if we turn the TV off when we go to bed?" I never said anything mean or meant harm.

Why does it have to be such a big deal to make such a small compromise? We have three TVs in three of the four rooms in our tiny apartment. The world is not going to explode if we turn the thing off by 11:00 p.m.

Fortunately, work comes to the rescue. I am happiest when I am editing a document or writing an article. It was very soothing to be at work today, but since I haven't slept much this past week, I did hit a brick wall about five minutes before I was supposed to leave.

Channeling Barry White

I don't even know where the time went! I began my day with an interview with Chika Nnamani. Words can't describe how cool awesome he is and how his awesomeness rained down onto his daughter, which is a bit of a problem considering that it is my job to describe how amazing this family is. I'm sure I'll find a way to show it, but that will probably be at 1:00 a.m. when I am laying awake and scribbling down all the cool ideas I have for my article.

I've been trying to find out why I love what I do, and I don't think I have come to a definitive point yet. It may not even exist, but since I am a journalist, I'm going to get down to the bottom of this. I can say that one of my favorite things is being able to learn about new and interesting people/ events and tell stories about them. It's very rewarding.