| Sunday, February 4, 2007 |
| The Reality of Journalism |
Procrastination is what has driven me through all 13 years of elementary, middle and high school -- that and talking, which is probably why I ended up procrastinating so much.
And I talk a lot.
I’m not going to sit here and say I don’t procrastinate anymore, now that I’m in college.
That would somehow imply I’m not normal, because pretty much everyone in college procrastinates. Just in the same way everyone in college naps. God, I love naps! I just took one tonight, even though I’ve been a tad busy.
See? Even in a blog entry I can procrastinate… even while I’m actually writing it.
And the point I was trying to get around to making (before I started procrastinating, which reminded me of naps, which I really wanted to take today and never got the chance to take) was this: sometimes, procrastination is frustrating.
I had my first interview set up for my first “Faces” profile. It couldn’t be until Tuesday afternoon, because of scheduling conflicts, but I figured I could handle Tuesday.
When is the story due? Wednesday. But I figured I could devote myself to the story that day – really dive into the interview, pull it together and pump out the material. After all, I had no other choice. My source could only meet that time and as a journalist, I have to make it work.
…Until the source called and left a message on Sunday night, saying we couldn’t meet on Tuesday because something came up.
Fantastic.
Now, where procrastination used to drive me, it now terrifies me. I live a busy life, I have a lot of responsibilities and a lot of times where I dedicate myself to things I really don’t have time for. But I make them work. I adjust my life and throw things around and come up with the time.
Since high school, I’ve become a much better judge of my time. I’m always on time for work (even if I always feel as if I’m running late) and I always have assignments turned in. I keep my commitments because I believe in them. Yet in journalism, I know commitments cannot always be kept and sources sometimes flake out.
So here I am, two days from deadline with a full day ahead of me on Monday; a day which holds pretty much no time for throwing together a story.
I guess we’ll see how the story unfolds. Maybe I’m just meant to tell a different story, or tell the one I was planning at a different time.
Either way – I have a deadline in my near future.
And prepared or not – I’m committed.
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posted by Border Reflections @ 8:18 PM  |
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| Kari Anne Shaffer |
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