A Little Reminder

"Decide promptly, but never give any reasons. Your decisions may be right, but your reasons are sure to be wrong." ~ Lord Mansfield

Back in elementary school, I was part of a decently large, close group of friends. We had pretty much been in the same class since second grade, and the group consisted of me, 4 other girls, and maybe 8 or 9 guys. When fifth grade came around, our school zone did some redistricting, which would mean that when we left elementary school the next year, we would not all be going to the same middle school. Instead, me and about 5 of the guys would be headed to a different middle school, farther away, and statistically, much less successful. The area it was in, the teachers, the classes offered...all were adding up to a potentially horrible experience. Needless to say, I was pretty devastated.

There was, however, one redeeming aspect of this school, and that was that it was one of the only middle schools in the county that offered a magnet program. Now being in that program meant that you had a completely different experience than the rest of the school...options of gifted and talented classes, different scheduling, etc. So of course, I was going to be part of that program. There were five options of programs: Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Music, Mass Communications, and Computer Applications in Math and Science. I was pretty sure I wanted to do the Dance option under the Performing Arts program, and was ready to go and audition when I found out that all of the the guys, the only people I would know going to that school, were going to be heading toward the Mass Comm program. And so, at the last minute, I did something I would never do now, and followed everyone else.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I just knew that even if I hated everything else about the school, the people there, the classes....I would be able to see these guys for an hour and a half everyday, which at that time, was enough for me.

It turned out that I loved that program. I was really good at the computer programs and camera work, and was above par with my writing skills. Being ahead of a lot of the class with technical skills gave me even more options, and it ended up being me and few of the guys in a group that was allowed to wander around the school at the end of every day, unsupervised and basically just hanging out, to practice camera shots and put together a short video. At that point, I was sure I had made the right decision.

Then we got to the part of the program which focused on public speaking, and I seriously considered withdrawal. I was terrified of talking in front of groups, especially my peers. When I heard that each week we were to give a speech and have it taped to watch back and critique, I was then sure that I made the biggest mistake ever.

As it turned out, I was a wreck in front of the class, and for five consecutive weeks, I made a fool of myself in front of everyone....twice, because we had to rewatch it. My teacher thought he had the perfect solution: Put me on the Morning Show, reading the announcements to the school each day over the TVs. It was not an option.

But I surprised myself, and after the first couple of days of stumbling through announcements about club meeting cancellations and new activities trying to start up, I got the hang of it, and was actually, even kind of good at it. And the next week, I didn't get any butterflies when I stood up to give my speech to the class. I continued doing the announcements almost daily until the end of 8th grade, and went on to perform in one full length play and a musical before entering highschool.

I remembered all of this today when I was at the Newseum with my mom and brother. That was what started my interest in journalism and what made me want to pursue it as a career...at least until this past year when I sort of lost my passion for it. Today, combined with the special Brian Williams did on Obama two weeks ago, made me realize that a lot of that passion is still there, and is definitely something I should still consider to pursue.