While packing cheez-its, oreos, and not enough blankets for my trip to Press Pass summer camp two days ago, the thought that kept'running through'my head was “What do I want to be remembered for when I am older?”. Do I want to be an environmental scientist, a psychologist, a lawyer, or a journalist? I have a keep interest in all the subjects related to the careers described above, but the hardest part is choosing one to be my major. With this difficult question and looming responsibilty in mind, I calmed down by reminding myself that I was making the right choice of going to this camp. I believed that it would help me either rule out or make me love the field of journalism, and so far, my belief seems to be tranforming into reality.
Even though it has only been two days here at camp, I am already discovering what I like and don’t like about journalism as a prospective future career path. For example, while I believed that I would be quick to adapt to the new technology, such as the camera and the editing software, I ended up having a difficult time first learning how to use it. On the other hand, while I believed that I would crack under the pressure of deadlines, I ended up doing very well with time management and matching up the time of the video slides to my voice.
Another thing that the Press Pass camp has helped do is validate my speaking abilities. I have been on my school’s speech team for three years and event captain for two of those, but I was worried about whether or not those skills would carry through into the broadcasting medium. Thankfully, they did, and I found myself very comfortable and animated while presenting my VO and VOSOTVO 'broadcasts to the group. I am glad that I am futher improving on my communication abilities and that I am discovering the areas in the field of journalism that I have a special knack for.
Overall, Press Pass had been a blast so far, as not only am I having a great time learning about other campers and professors, but I am also getting first hand experience working with broadcasting equipment and software. So far, eveyone has been expremely encouraging and motivating, so I am greatly looking foreward to learning tons of new things before I go home.
Love, your soon-to-be envornmentally legal psychologically analyzing journalist 🙂