Good news!

Yesterday I attended my last college class ever. To keep this short, it was bittersweet.

 

I also have cool news about one of my professors. I took Arts Writing with Holly George-Warren during Spring ’12. She is a fantastic writer with a lot of prolific pieces under her belt. And now, she’s been nominated for a GRAMMY!

From the Grammy nomination website:

The Pearl Sessions

Holly George-Warren, album notes writer (Janis Joplin)
[Columbia/Legacy]
It’s under the Best Album Notes Writing.
Very excited for her and proud to have learned so much from her.
Here’s a piece I wrote during her class about a certain guest-speaker: British Rocker Graham Parker Visits New Paltz.
Fingers crossed she wins!

Crazy!

I just got back from my school late last night. I left Tuesday afternoon to go up, went out a bit with friends to celebrate my birthday, ran some errands on Wednesday morning, got lunch with my cousin, went to my internship seminar class, hung out with some friends, and then left for the two-hour trip back home.

I cried 5 times yesterday because of how much I miss my professors and classes, as well as my friends.  Luckily, my choice to complete school early and graduate in December, and stay home to do my internship feels right. I feel more concentrated at home.

Still, the first time I walked into the building of where I had most of my classes, I began to cry. I’ve spent so many hours there, learning, creating, and envisioning what my life can be like in the future. I had to spend a couple of minutes in the bathroom to compose myself. I then went and saw my adviser. She is a great lady and told me how proud she was to see me succeed. She convinced me that i should walk at the graduation ceremony in the spring. I began to cry again.

On top of seeing her, I also saw one of the professors I’ve worked a lot with. The adviser for the club I was president of last year. I could only chat with him for a few minutes, but it was nice to see him. I mentioned to him how I kept tearing up and said that I had loved all my classes here. He made a comment that I said that in the past tense. It was an emotional day.

Seeing all my friends was hard too. They’re the people I saw everyday for the 3 years I was up at school. They even said it feels different without me there. At least my school isn’t so far away that I cannot visit from time to time. And I have to go up once a month for a class, anyway, so that excuse is a nice one.

Nerves!

Today I handed in my first article.  It was a different experience than handing it into a professor or peer to edit, grade, and return.

I sat at my editor’s desk as he read out-loud my article.  I couldn’t help but already nit-pick things that I could of changed, and small mistakes that I had made out of being nervous.

Despite my heart lodging itself in my throat the whole time, it wasn’t that bad of an experience.  My professors always spoke of this experience.  That there own articles would be pulled apart and marked up unbelievably.  I had a couple of word-agreement mistakes, and needed to shift some information around but other than that the editor said my article was good.

What a relief!

So I survived my first newspaper editing experience.  I have had plenty of articles edited, all of them have been, and a every article should, but this one was new.

I’m glad I didn’t cry!

CoveritLive!

Doing my first CoveritLive! event.

Now let’s see if I can get this to work properly.

 
Click Here to tune in!

Tune in to see my tweets on “The Art of Investigative Reporting” Lecture with Andy Lehren, from the New York Times.