Tonight we were talking about jobs. I've been hoping and praying that I'll be able to find a journalism job once I move to NC. Tonight I decided to face the music and look to see if the local newspaper was hiring writers.
No such luck...at this point in time anyways. I guess I could always drive around and deliver the newspapers that I so desperately want a byline in.
It's actually been weighing heavily on me the last couple days that I'm not working in the field that I studied so hard in. In less than a week it will be the 1 year anniversary of my graduation. Don't get me wrong, I have loved being a nanny over the last year. I've made a lot of money and my life has been impacted greatly by these little babies. I've also loved being able to plan my wedding without distractions. I wouldn't trade any of it. I'm just hoping that in this next stage of life I can have a different job. Here's hoping!
Whether you're young or old, there has to be something that you once dreamed about.
Maybe it came true.
Maybe it didn't.
Maybe your dream just changed into a new one.
I used to dream a lot.
Scheming in my head, daydreaming, or laying in bed for hours planning my life and how my dreams were going to be a part of it.
For example,
I used to want to do this as a career...
Then that dream changed into this...
Which finally changed to this...
Killer whales to journalism, go figure!
It's probably just because it's Mother's Day and this blog post and this blog post made me tear up twice today and because I have one of the most amazing moms I know, but I would give up my dream of being a journalist for one of these...
Currently I work at LA Fitness Sports Clubs as a receptionist/bill collector a.k.a a hustler...just kidding...sort of.
On a normal work day I sit at a empty desk (if there is one) and I make about at least a hundred phone calls on average to members whose electronic form of payment or EFT has decline in our system for whatever reason. I "clear" them up. This really is not a fun job. Yes, I make 5 extra dollars for every clear up I get, which is very nice on payday, providing I do well. But honestly it's basically the luck of the draw on who you call and if they'll clear up with you. I get yelled at, hung up on, and cussed out on a very regular basis. Some days when I get a member on the phone who is nice and willing to let me update their accounts, it makes me want to cry. On Sundays, I get to actually work the front desk, check members in, and have some personal interaction with the people that come to my gym all the time and I love that! I'm very thankful to actually have a job right now, with the state of our world being as it is, but I really wish sometimes that I could just quit.
I've always been a writer and decided to pursue journalism as a career when I was a senior in high school. I think the point that I really became passionate about journalism was when I started working on The Gavilan Press at my old community college. I worked my way up to Editor In Chief and absolutely loved every minute of it...even the super late nights finishing that dang layout. I honestly can't wait to graduate so I can start my career. I hope it's as exciting sometimes as I imagine it will be.
My other passion is to be an amazing mother and wife.
(Yes, that's me on the left.)
I really can't wait to get married sometimes and I think about becoming a mother and it makes me super happy. Hopefully someday soon I can fulfill these passions too.
Photo provided by lulakate.com Bridesmaids in cowgirl boots? I love it!
I'm sorry that I failed your quiz today by getting a 1/4. I promise that I read my chapters, but I've never been one for doing good on tests, let alone pop quizzes. There's just something about you that confuses me and makes me feel....well...dumb. You have a ton of different words, mostly in Latin, and way too many different cases and names to keep straight. Unfortunately, you're the biggest class that's standing in the way of me and my graduation. I promise to start studying harder, if you start making a little more sense to me.
Love your diligent super senior,
Amanda
You can read a few other little letters that I've written here and here.
I would love to be Christiane Amanpour for a day. I'd want to cover an amazing story and be one of the best journalists there is. She's definitely a role model in my career life.
Remaining objective is something that has been drilled into my being since I sat in my first journalism class and decided that was going to be my career. When I've come across an article or a story that's clearly not balanced or objective, I get angry and frustrated. So you would think that because of this reaction, I would be able to remain objective in situations that happen in my everyday life right? Wrong. Today I had a chance to remain objective and I failed. I gave it my best shot and it just didn't happen. What sucks is just like I feel let down as a reader of a completely biased story, it's possible that the other person in my situation felt let down by me.
As I've been thinking about what happened today and my life after gradation (there really is a connection), I began to kick myself and be afraid for my future career and relationships, because my attempted objectiveness is completely overtaken by how easily my emotions rule. Sometimes my emotions react even before my brain can and it starts this fast-spinning, out of control feeling and no matter what I do, I can't stop it. I could say that it's because I'm a girl, but that's not it, I just don't have enough strength (?) to just push that aside and think clearly. It's caused, still causing, and will cause problems and that scares me. Am I in the wrong field? Will I drive people away? Will I get fired? There's just so many questions that I'm wrestling with.
Today has been difficult, I feel like I failed a really important test or something to that effect. Anyone know of some classes I can take that will teach me objectiveness in my personal life? Wouldn't that be nice...
Anyways, I realize that this is a downer post but it feels good to write and clear my throbbing head of all these questions. Does anyone have any plans for this weekend? The girls and I are still trying to find something to do. I would tell you to be safe and don't take candy from strangers, but that doesn't work at all for this weekend (Ha!), so just be safe and have fun!
Just came home for my break to grab some food and turned on the TV to watch the morning news and still can't believe what I heard. You think that law makers in California would have way more important things to worry about than what sort of meals fast food restaurants can include toys in! Seriously?
Apparently in San Francisco law makers passed a law stating that fast food chains can no longer include toys with all their kid meals. Now they can only include them in meals that have a serving of fruit or vegetables included with the meal and have less sugar, fat, and sodium. I don't know about you, but I've kinda noticed that California isn't doing that great as a state....maybe it's just me, I dunno but, I wonder if we as a state would be in a better place if politicians and lawmakers focused on more important and less trivial issues. What do you think?
I'm vowing that to the best of my ability and at the risk of losing any future job I might have in the field of journalism, I will not write a story that makes the criminal, culprit, or wrongdoer out to be the victim in a situation where other lives were affected by their actions.
JOUR 101: English for Media Writers
JOUR 430: Mass Media Law
JOUR 315: Journalism as Literature
JOUR 340: Introduction to Online Journalism
JOUR 495: Senior Seminar
ENGL 385: The Short Story
ENGL 405: Creative Writing: Short Story
ENGL 406: Creative Writing: Poetry
ENGL 459: English Literature of the Twentieth Century
H SC 425I: Human Sexuality and Sex Education
Count them. There's ten classes listed there.
Those are the very last ten classes that I need to complete for my college career. When those classes are done I will have my Bachelor's Degree in Journalism with a minor in Creative Writing, not to mention my Associates degree that I already have in Liberal Arts and Humanities.
It's so close. Graduation is so close. One more year! That's it! Five classes per semester for Fall 10 / Spring 11. Maybe I'll even take one or two of those classes during Winter Session and make my last semester a total breeze.
I'm sure that if you have watched the television in the last 24 hours or so you would have heard the news about the death of 21 year old, Georgian luger, Noder Kumaritashvil . If you've heard of this unfortunate death on the eve of the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, there's a chance that you might have seen the horrific video footage that many news channels aired over and over again. Honestly I cried out "Oh my gosh!" the first time I saw it and the next several times it played I turned away. I remember thinking that those news agencies had a lot of guts to air the last few moments of this young man's life and show the world his sickening hit on that metal pole.
I took a media ethics class last semester and I really wish that I could be taking it right now so I could be apart of the discussions that will no doubt take place in the classroom next week. I think that there's no way I would ever allow that footage to air on my news network. There were several still pictures taken from the beginning of Kumaritashvil's luge run and a somber picture of his empty sled continuing down the track without its rider that would be just as saddening and compelling. No way was the video needed to convey this tragedy. I'm really curious to see what Kumaritashvil's family thought of their son's last 48 seconds of life being aired so thoughtlessly on national television, over and over again.
The Olympic ratings would have been just high without the video. Some people might disagree with me, but personally as a journalist I don't see how that was a right move. There's more tasteful ways of doing your job. Here's another blogger's perspective that disagrees with my point of view.
Let me know what you think. I'm curious what you all were feeling if you did get to see the video.
I hope you guys are having a good Valentines Day weekend and spending it with people that you love.
Tonight, while I was studying for my winter session Journ. 311: Writing and Reporting for The Media's final, I came across a tidbit of information that made me sad.
A blog is not a true blog unless you receive comments from your readers.
Well folks, I have no comments. Now, I haven't posted very much so far but there is potential for comments to appear...or so I thought.
Come to find out I had for some reason disabled the comment application from my blog. Honestly I don't know if I've ever messed with the settings on here enough to even realize the mystery behind my no comment status so it might have came set like that by default but, tonight I did.
So dear readers...if there are any besides my mom...you can now post comments on whatever random ramblings come to my mind and are typed, then sent out into this void.
Corporal Matthew Lorscheider, 28, served his country for four years in the Marine Corps as a machine gunner in Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. After serving in support of Operation Enduring Freedom when 9/11 happened and being deployed to Iraq for seven months in 2003, one would think that he had seen his fair share of battles.
Unfortunately, Lorscheider and many veterans, who are trying to further their education by attending college after their enlistments are up, have come across another fight. This time they are fighting stateside and their enemy is called the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
The source of veteran student’s problems today is due to the newest addition to the GI Bill family. Effective in 2009, the original GI Bill was updated to the Post-9/11 GI Bill or Chapter 33. This law gives veterans who served active duty on, or after, Sept. 11, 2001 improved education benefits that would cover more than just educational expenses. Veterans now receive a living allowance, money for books and the ability to transfer over their education benefits to their spouses or children.
Lorscheider originally received the Montgomery GI Bill and immediately began using it after his discharge in June of 2004. All 36 months of his eligibility were used by January 2008. He was originally told that because his eligibility was done he was not going to receive any entitlement under the Post-9/11 GI Bill program.
“The VA had a change of heart on that matter, however, and extended the eligibility to 48 months, allowing me the extra 12 months,” Lorscheider said.
The Post-9/11 Bill has encountered a big problem in the few months that it has been in effect. Payments to student veterans that were supposed to cover tuition, books and rent for Fall Semester 2009 were delayed for months and left these veterans with next to nothing to live on.
“At first the delay was understandable, I've dealt with the VA for the past 5 years and I'm used to these types of things, and I understand that to implement a program the size of the GI Bill takes time and a lot of hard work. But by the middle of September, they took ‘four to six weeks’ and changed it to ‘eight to ten weeks’ and then ‘ten to twelve weeks’ which is when I realized that I simply did not have the resources to hold out for that long,” Lorscheider explained. “The stress was incredible; I honestly think that it was the most stressful time in my life since my combat tour.”
Because of the delays in payments, the Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs, Retired U.S. Army General Eric K. Shinseki approved one-time 3,000 dollar advance payment checks to veterans who did not receive their benefits on time.
“This is an extraordinary action we’re taking,” said Shinseki on the VA’s GI Bill website. “But it’s necessary because we recognize the hardships some of our Veterans face.”
The delays in Lorscheider’s benefits made him eligible for the advance payment checks.
“Had it not been for the advance, I would have been evicted in October,” he said.
Despite the advancement check Lorscheider called it a “temporary patch”. It didn’t solve the problem that he had no reliable income, so he decided to take make a tactical decision.
“I wanted people to know what was going on, because I believe that if the average American knows that veterans aren't being treated right, they'll step up and help us...,” he stated.
Lorscheider began to write e-mails to the White House, Congresswoman Laura Richardson (D-37th District, Calif.), Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and every newspaper he could think of.
“I made the point in all these emails that this is not just play around money, this is money to live on while we go to school, it's supposed to cover our living expenses. I also wanted people to understand that we're not a bunch of whiners looking for a handout...,” Lorscheider said.
Luckily Lorscheider received his back check from the VA in mid-November and it seems that everything has been going well since. However, students, including Lorscheider, might not be out of the woods yet. The VA is going to be flooded with benefit applications for the upcoming Spring 2010 semester. Currently The Department of Veterans Affairs Education Call Center is closed on Thursdays and Fridays so their staff can process education benefit claims.
When asked if he was worried about the same delays happening in the next few months Lorscheider said, “I’m slightly concerned about spring semester. But I did receive two unexpected payments from (the) VA last week, I’m thinking that’s a sign that everything is due to kick on for the Spring.”
On tougher note Corporal Lorscheider is ready to do battle if things were to go wrong with his benefits again,
“The VA better hope things go smoothly, or else I'm marching into Congresswoman Richardson's office and demanding that heads roll...hell I might just run for congress myself.”
