Be Prepared

Well, I've finished my first feature story for class. It was a bumpy road to get to the finished product, and I'm hoping it turned out well.

My original plans to write a day-in-the life story on Greeley reggae band Trichome fell through and I had to scramble to find another band playing last week before the deadline. As it turns out, social media is a useful tool. Through Facebook, I discovered that new country band Wild Card was playing at Bears, a local sports bar. I had to modify the sort of story I was going to write because of time constraints and conflicting schedules.

I don't think there was any part that was easy. Some things were easier than others, but it all took some work. I had a great time with the boys from Wild Card, though. They were extremely kind, helpful and hilarious. It was a pleasure to spend some time with them at their rehearsal Thursday night and at the bar on Friday night.

I learned an incredibly valuable lesson this past couple weeks: be prepared to change your plans and adapt quickly to the situation. Apparently, Murphy's law does not give journalists a break.

And Away We Go

This is my first blog ever. Here I hope to hone my skills as a journalist and examine what I did well and what I could have done better. Blogging is a way to interact with readers and is becoming more important in journalism all the time. I'd better keep up.

I haven't had too much experience in journalism yet, but I am loving everything about it so far. My decision to change my major to journalism came from the fact that I love to write and have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. I'm applying to the UNC Mirror this week and hoping they'll hire me to report for them. Fingers crossed.

I'm covering the Greeley/Northern Colorado music scene. I decided to narrow it down to bands that include UNC students. I hope to learn what it's like to balance school and music, as well as the reasons they have for performing. Following local groups might also display a microcosm of the music industry around the country. I've never covered a beat before and I'm excited that my first one is on something so interesting and exciting to me.

My strengths as a journalist are hanging back and observing to gather information. I also have a gift for describing minute details that enrich the story. I've been told I'm great at telling stories through writing, and hopefully that's true. My weakness is that I'm a little bit shy. I struggle to push my way into a situation and talk to people. But I think with a little practice and determination I can overcome it. I'll get better at approaching people if I do it more.

As I said, this is my first blog ever. I've written notes on Facebook and MySpace, but that's a little different. Those are personal things that only my friends can see. This is new. I'm putting something out there for anyone who happens to stumble across my blog to read. It's a very interesting feeling. I guess I'm not scared but just a little anxious. It's something that anyone in the world can comment on. I could write something on here and be completely blasted anonymously. I feel confident that I can express myself on here and learn something from it. I can communicate with readers. It's a dialogue instead of a writer and readers.