How many news sources do you use per day?

Three. NPR, New York Times online, The Boston Globe and on occasion our college paper, The Daily Free Press. At first, I thought it was a drag having to read the news all the time. Last semester I used to read the first section of the globe cover to cover, and it was the worst. You might think the first section is short, but really it's close to 30 pages of articles. Plus we were quizzed on it, so you couldn't just move on if you thought the article was boring. I mean crazy questions, like what surgery was preformed in space last week? What? Does it matter?

Now, I've taken to looking up the news for fun. Last night, being a Saturday, I looked up the news on the Scooter Libby case and proceeded to read the rest of the news on the front page. I feel like this is definitely a good thing. I need to be interested in the news if I want to work in the industry. Obsession with looking at the news online: a good thing.

La La Literacy

I have just been employed by the ILP at BU. It's a literacy program, and we go to a public school in Chelsea where we help teach parents how to read, and understand English better. Currently my activities at BU include both volunteering at a preschool once a week, and working at the ILP. This past summer I worked at a summer camp as a counselor with 8 year-olds.

So the question has been raised on several occasions, do I want to be a teacher? At camp, it was a general question because many of the counselor were either teachers or were interested in becoming a teacher. At the preschool I volunteer at the teacher told me about how I should really consider being a teacher. Now, as I have just taken this tutoring job, I wonder if I like teaching and reading to toddlers, children and adults so much am I subconsciously on the path to being an English teacher?

I think no. Teaching seems to hard both emotionally and physically. I would probably teach high schoolers in an attempt to really affect their lives. Yet, being hated by a pack of 16 year-olds because I'm trying to ruin their lives by giving them homework, and proceeded to read through their poorly written papers doesn't seem appealing to me. It seems like a very unfulfilling life to be disliked by students, but if you're lucky you could probably change 1 in every 50 students lives. This doesn't seem right, a very low statistic. Still, why am I itching to participate in these activities instead of spending my nights at the daily paper at BU? This is quickly becoming an issue in my life. I would like to clarify that I also work at the radio station and just emailed a section of the paper about writing for them. Nevertheless, I dedicate more or equal amounts of time to these non-journalism activities.

Narcolepsy

I got approximately 7 hours of sleep last night, and I could not keep my eyes open during Journalism class today. It's not that I didn't get enough sleep because I had anthropology later in the afternoon, and I was awake and attentive.

We were covering printmaking, apprentices, newsletter's audience, Ben Franklin, you know the most interesting things happening to journalism in the 1720's. While some students were super intrigued on who wrote these articles and how much people had to pay for a subscription to a newsletter, I was struggling to write a full sentence without closing my eyes. Is it bad that I'm not interested in the history of journalism? At first I figured it was normal to be bored, but it seemed like the professor had just told us that Ben Franklin rode a unicorn from Boston to Philadelphia. If that was true, I'd be much more excited, but alas it is not.

Selling my soul

At college, you are required to declare a major by junior year. Here at Boston University, things aren't quite that simple. You have to declare a major within a certain school. For instance, currently I'm in the College of Communication (COM) looking to major in journalism, but I wonder, do I really want to be a journalism major? Although I technically have until junior year to declare a major, but unless I'm interested in being a journalism, PR, or film major I need to get out of COM by sophomore year.

So do I want to sell my soul to the newspaper/magazine industry where I will just barely get paid, work crazy hours, and most likely be ridiculed by my editor? I think so, for now. You my fine reader will take into consideration the happenings of this semester, and by May, everyone will vote on whether or not I should proceed to major in journalism.

Currently, my experience with journalism, will be my introductory journalism course, writing for an arts and entertainment section of the paper once a week and possibly reporting the news on our radio station. The other majors will be considered by my interest in the classes I'm taking/have taken, and my daily thoughts.