Third Week

It's my third week here at the NJ, and it's business as usual. My story that's in the paper today is about the self-defense class I went to cover. It was pretty cool being sent on assignment to actually be a part of the story I was covering. The story is my fourth to run in the "Life" section since I've been here, along with a few other little clips about events that I've done. Last week I actually got to eat a Milky Way "Simply Caramel" bar and evaluate its tastiness as part of my duties. What a tough life...

Right now I'm working on my "wallpaper is coming back" story. We need actual people who have wallpaper in their homes to let us in to take pictures, but that's proving rather difficult. For a story that some might not find too interesting, it's key to get some great photos. I'm working on it! I have a few cool stories in my queue of stuff to work on, so I'm never short of things to do. I'm actually off next week since I'll be training all day for my other job at school (I'm a Program Assistant for Summer College, so I live in the dorms with high school kids), so I have to try to get everything organized for that week I'll be out of the office.

I feel like I'm learning a lot about writing under pressure. I have to find out very quickly what the most interesting part of a story is, and get to it. My editor, Betsy, is really quick to tell me not to buy into some of the b.s. that people try to feed reporters, and that it's my job to find out what's really important to the story. She helps me out a lot here--she's tough, but absolutely gives me credit when I do a good job.

I'm going to leave the NJ with a bunch of clips to add to my collection, which I think is great. I want to start thinking of ideas to pitch, since that's apparently encouraged, but for now, I have too many other stories to worry about!