Week 16: THE END

Whew! It is my last day and I'm a little saddened by it. This past week has been just a killer for me, trying to balance school and work. I pulled a few all-nighters and drank loads of coffee. Now, the result is me walking into cars, into chairs, into door frames and any other stationary thing. Yes, I'm exhausted. I want to hurl myself into bed and not wake up for 24 hours.

Though enough about school, while freaking out about other things, I was able to go up to the Capitol and write a story about a rally of people demanding the state legislators do something about the budget. It was interesting to say the least. After everyone had split up to go about their mission, I went on to sit in on a Senate session. It was very fun and while I was sitting in with other professional journalists, I loved their commentary of what was going on (we sat in a soundproof area, thank god!). This may be dorky of me but I would love, love, LOVE to have one of their jobs. :)

Unfortunately, I'm so tired, the gravity of this being my last day hasn't really kicked in. Maybe it will next week, when everything is over. Maybe. Probably. Definitely. I will be sad. This internship did really spoil me.

Until then, good-bye Oklahoma Gazette.

Thank you for giving me this internship opportunity, helping me learn quite a few things, letting me write awesome stories, taking me under your wing and watching me fly and then guiding me whenever it looked like I was about to drop like a rock and thank you for allowing me to do those floaters, of course! :)

P.S. I was totally kidding about the floaters throughout this blog. They are the best! ;)

Week 15: The beginning of the End

Yes, a very dramatic title for a post. Well, why not? It really is the beginning of the end of my internship at the Gazette. I have one more week left and I can tell you, I'm going to miss this place and the people who work here; though I will NEVER miss doing the floaters (GRRR, floaters...).

This week wasn't very much different from before with the exception that two out of the four interns' last day was either yesterday or today. Luke and I will stick around for another week, meaning one more week of floaters and Hey Do This! Yes!

Again, this week wasn't much different. I wrote floaters and wrote a story for the book. Basically an abortions bill update. I haven't officially finished it yet because on Monday one of the first law suit hearings against the ultrasound bill will take place.

While it wasn't very different, the Gazette editorial staff was very nice about taking the interns out to eat to Ingrid's Kitchen and paying for us. :) The lunch conversation was very fun too, but I won't go into detail.

This is so surreal. I can't believe this internship is coming to a close. If any one of you has the chance to intern at the Oklahoma Gazette, do it. You won't regret it. :)

Week 14: Exhaustion

Well, I'm exhausted! This past week has to be one of the most draining weeks I have had, both physically and emotionally. Dividing up my time between my internship and school is always a balancing act but throwing in hiring for the Daily next semester, the last two days threw me for a loop.

I started this week going to the 15th anniversary of the Alfred P. Murrah Building bombing. It was very somber and while I think I was too young to understand the significance of that day as a child, I developed a better understanding of that day.

During the ceremony and throughout the day when I walked through the museum for the first time, I cried at least three times: first during the reading of the names by family members of the victims, the my initial response to the museum and how they used the news reels of that day that I vaguely remember and when I read my friend's article in The Oklahoma Daily about a family's journey moving on.

It's these events I wish and hope that I find the right words to tell the story.

The next Wednesday, I was able to cover Bill Clinton coming to Oklahoma City to accept an award from the museum's foundation. The event was good, but at that point in the day, I was spent. Click here to read my story.

After that, I worked on school work and interviewed applicants. I can't tell you how glad I am it is the weekend and how excited I am to sleep and catch a few awesome bands at the Norman Music Festival! :)

Week 13: Craziness

This week was a bit different than normal weeks in that I wrote mostly life and arts type stories. I wrote a feature on the Oklahoma City Arts Festival, a mini-feature on the band Gentle Ghost and wrote the normal floaters for every week (Ugh, floaters). I did write one brief thing for news but this is a first time in a while that I have not written anything newsy or political.

Next week, though, I'm jumping back into the news with the remembrance of the OKC Bombing Monday and Wednesday is the day I cover a dinner with Bill Clinton. I'm excited. :)

I have three weeks left of my internship after today. That's insane. And it is sad for me. I really like my internship and the people that I work with.

Week 12: Reporting and writing

I know I have said this more times that I can count but I really love my career choice. I continually do what I really like to do.

This week, I covered a town hall meeting in Guthrie with U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R- Oklahoma, where he was very gracious to those on the other side of the floor. I unfortunately missed out on the famous one in OKC but the Guthrie one was basically the same.

My cover story came out. It was good. I loved the cover art for it. Click here to read the longer version online.

The best part of my week though was when I got to interview two really respected journalists, former CNN and NBC News correspondent Mike Boettcher and Editor-at-Large of TIME Magazine Mark Halperin. I would give my right arm to be working at TIME Magazine by the way. :)

Now, if you read either one of these guys' biographies you would be amazed at their careers. While both are extremely impressive, Boettcher, who considers Oklahoma City his hometown, has become one of my heroes. I am hoping he will be teaching at OU again next year because I would love to have a class with him!

I would honestly give a vital organ to have half the career of either one of these men. They have the careers I aspire to have. It's speaking to these people that reaffirms my love for what I do and makes me want to give it my all and do what I can to make me want to become a better journalist.

Week 11: Stress!

This week, I wrote a story for the Gazette.

Not too much different from what I usually do every week, correct? Well, this week is different mostly because this week's story is scheduled to be a cover story for the Gazette.

A COVER STORY!

You can use the words of Joe Biden when President Obama signed the health care bill into law to describe how I feel about it.

It's about the top ten delinquent taxpayers in the state. Let me tell you, no one was very happy to talk to me, sadly enough.

I had nightmares about this story for three days. It was all the same, I was trying to finish my story and somehow, somewhere down the road, I couldn't finish for deadline and then I look at the paper the next day and The Oklahoman wrote my story. I would wake up in a cold sweat every time and was too agitated to go back to sleep.

Well, unlike what my subconscious was so afraid of, I did make deadline and my story is in the process of going through its third review of fact checking.

Pick up a copy of next week's Gazette. It should have my name on the cover of it. :)

Week 9 & 10: Spring break and history

So, I was lame and decided to go into the office last week because I had almost absolutely no spring break plans to speak of and I'm accomodating to my poor status. It was a really off week for everyone, mostly because Rob and a majority of the staff was gone for most of the week. I mostly did what I was supposed to do but was completely unhappy with my sources because apparently, they too believed they deserved a vacation.

This week, on the other hand, was insane! As most would know, unless you have been living under a rock for the past week, the U.S. House passed national health care Sunday night.

Game over, Republicans. Wrong.

Monday, the Republican leadership of the state legislature came out and called for the Attorney General to sue the federal government. Click here to view my story on Monday's press conference.

Well, that was only the start of it. Attorney General Drew Edmondson, Democrat and governor candidate, issued a statement that he would look into it and that it was just to early to sue. U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin, Republican and governor candidate, started accusing Edmondson of being disloyal to what Oklahomans want. The health care opt out bills got voted on at warped speed. A few lone Democrats spoke out against the majority. Sen. Randy Brogden, Republican and yet another governor candidate, got accused of being racist.

My head is spinning just writing this down.

Now, try putting that into a big story to come out next Wednesday. Yeah, you're head is spinning a little bit too now, huh?

Keep an eye out for next week's Gazette and read what these people had to say.

Week 8: Halfway through!

Wow. I honestly cannot believe it's going to be spring break next week, meaning this semester is halfway over. If you have been reading this blog, you know that I had the worst time trying to understand what I was writing about, thinking I put out one of the worst stories I have in the Gazette.

Well, that might be so, but I think that it also got the someone important to do something about it.

Click here to view the story.

The Oklahoma Gazette goes out on stands every Wednesday. My story was first viewed by readers Wednesday and by Wednesday late afternoon, Corporate Commissioner Dana Murphy came out and openly criticized this plan by the telecommunications staff and told them to stop.

Now, I'm not sure if my story did something or if it was just coicidence, I'm just glad that I was able to wonder if my story did make an impact on the community.

Week 7: Jargon

After a whirlwind week that was last week (writing one big story for the book and two small stories for the Web as well the regular floaters), I was preoccupied with things going on with my bank statements.

During our editorial planning meeting Tuesday morning, Rob Collins, the editor, gave me a story about a new proposal by the Oklahoma Corporate Commission's staff to have a new fee for each phone number to make all calls in the state toll-free.

As I started to look into it, I started confused. As I'm writing the story, I'm even more confused. Why? Since it is a proposal, nothing is final. It's actually a living draft that may or may not come together. Then talking to the people involved, I got more confused. Why? Because of the telecommunications jargon.

I honestly hope that my story this week makes sense and that whatever is ailing my bank statement will be fought away.

Week 6: "OH MY GOD!"

"Oh my God!" was what I said over and over again in my head Wednesday when I realized I would be going to the Billy Joel/Elton John Face 2 Face concert which was yesterday at the Ford Center. Coming from a dad who loves Billy Joel and a mom who loves both, I knew seeing them would be legendary! Seeing two iconic, talented musicians from mid-range ticket seat in an arena, what could be cooler?!

Thursday night, I found out what was. Writing a review for the Oklahoma Gazette's Web site, I was just happy to be getting free tickets to go to a concert I had been wanting to go for about year. When my friend Jamie Birdwell and I looked in the envelope to see where we were sitting, we freaked out!

"WE ARE ON THE FLOOR, FOURTH ROW!"

The concert started with so much anticipation in the room, it felt like a balloon with too much air inside.

Needless to say, I had a blast at the concert and Elton John looked at Jamie and myself, then blew us a kiss, probably because we were the youngest people in the first 10 rows...

To read what I officially thought of the concert, click here to view my review for the Oklahoma Gazette.

Week 5: Source trouble

Don't you hate it when people don't get back with you when you need them to? Occupational hazard that someone you need to talk to doesn't get back with you in a timely manner.

In most every other occupation, it's alright to let the person who is trying to get a hold of you wait a day and a half to get back with the information, but if that person is a journalist, you better believe they are muttering curses upon you. Nothing personal, but with deadlines hanging over our heads, it's hard to think pleasant thoughts for you.

Part of being a journalist is relying on other people to get back with you, so you can further your story. Without those people, a story is dead and lifeless. It's all-together boring.

No particular reason why for this post, but I find this problem quite annoying. So, you non-journalists out there, if a journalist calls, please call back soon or be okay with having someone not being your biggest fan for a while.

Week 4: Working at the Capitol

The more I have immersed myself into my chosen career path, the more I realized you either find yourself loving or hating your decision. The further I walk down the line, the more I love my choice. Working on a frustrating story for the past two weeks with elusive legislators, I finally was able to get comments, by going to a committee hearing.

Now, if you have ever seen a movie where someone is speaking to a federal committee, with legislators sitting, facing toward the people giving their testimony and a crowd sitting in rows facing the committee, it was nothing at all like that. Instead, we have a group of people sitting in a circle, chatting with one another and everyone else sitting in a bigger circle around them.

Thursday, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee met and discussed bills. The hearing was 2 hours long. I loved it.

Am I crazy? Possibly.

How can I possibly find any of what was going on in a two hour long meeting interesting? First off, the legislation discussed effects the state and second, the people there were just entertaining.

Now, that is in no way demeaning the fine people we have voted to represent us, but if people are expected to sit in a meeting, someone needs to say something interesting. And believe me, many interesting things were said in that meeting.

"How far will we continue?"

Curious? Read my article in the Oklahoma Gazette on Wednesday to find out. :)

Week 3: Stepping out of element

One of the things I love about journalism is you get the opportunity to always be uncomfortable. What I mean is, when you cover a story, you go to events you would never go to on your own, talk to people who would never cross your path otherwise and experience new cultures and norms. Whenever I report a hard issue or need to immerse myself into a different world, I feel that if I don't feel uncomfortable, I'm not doing my job right. I'm in no way judging what I'm seeing but rather letting it all sink in. With my discomfort is the urge of me wanting to understand what is going on around me better.

This week, I was very uncomfortable but not in a way that I'm accustomed to. As a news writer, I go out, talk to people, write down what I'm told and string it together to make a story and give it out to the people in hopes that they can make up their own mind on what is going on and do something about it. I try to make these stories enjoyable but the main goal is to inform and I understand they want news and will go elsewhere for entertainment.

This week, I was on the other side of the editorial office. I wrote my first ever full length life and arts feature on a singer-songwriter. Now, I have written personality profiles before but they were all coming from a news standpoint with a big news hook or an underlying issue. I have never written a story where my goal was to entertain (minus the fiction I tried to write when I was in grade school).

Interviewing was easy. The singer was so nice and accommodating. It was a blast talking to her.

Being a newbie, I decided to read old stories that is standard at the Gazette when it comes to music stories. What I read were stories so crafted and well-worded that I could sort of hear the music in my head or at least had an idea of what it sounded like.

I freaked.

"I have never written anything like that in my life!" I thought to myself. These stories were not only personality profiles on the individuals but rather reviews of their music as well. For so long, I have trained myself not to insert my opinion in my work that I felt like I forgot how to go about something like that. I'm afraid I made myself literally sick over it.

When I sat down to write, I felt blocked. I didn't know where to start. For the first time in more than four years, I honestly had no idea how to write. I never had that problem before. Writing had become second nature to me. Give me the information and I could get you a completed story within the hour. I knew the formula, I knew what words to use, I knew what to write to grab my reader.

With this story, I took a hard swallow and just wrote as well as I could, giving it my best. I wouldn't let my editor down and have him running around trying to fill the space. I could beat it or at least fight it!

Moral of the story: I took a step out of my writing element and I survived! It just makes me believe more so than ever that you HAVE TO get out of your element to become a better journalist.

This will not be the last time for me. I am set to write a few more life stories in the future and hopefully, I'll find my groove and I'm so glad. Instead of being flat, I'm getting the opportunity to become more well-rounded.

First impressions

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Trying to get settled in at school and learning the ropes at my internship. Whew.

At the Oklahoma Gazette, the editorial interns (Luke Atkinson and I) are left to complete the Hey! Do This (HDT) section and the little mini stories that shortly follow that section; we call them floaters.

Luke and I have decided to switch off doing floaters and doing HDT every week. They're not that difficult to do and both of us have been able to hit these things out of the ballpark in less than a day.

With that being said, this internship is very hands on and we are continually given the opportunities to write and cultivate our clipbook. At this point, we are both working on a few full-length stories for the Gazette. Right now, I'm finishing off with a feature on a Oklahoma City singer-songwriter and a legislative story. Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, these stories will run in the Feb. 10 edition of the Gazette.

Anyway, back to work!