Wrap-up Post: The Semester in Review

Foremost, I want to say that with each class that I take, my appreciation and respect for this university's journalism school grows. This is undoubtedly a world class program with more then capable professors. The quality of the program however, commands equally high quality work form its students. Such work takes time, dedication and sacrifice to create.

I did not sacrifice sufficiently, and I spent the last few weeks of class wondering why I could not motivate myself to do so. After attending the journalism banquet last week and hearing Andrew Morse of ABC News Digital speak about a passion for journalism that he just seemed to know we all shared, it hit me. The passion was not there for me, and that was hard to accept.

The effort that I saw some of my classmates put into their projects was astounding. They, like me, had jobs and other responsibilities to take care of but still, they made it work. It was their love of the art, of the discipline of journalism that allowed them to do so. I make no excuses for myself now, though I often did so throughout the semester.

Class itself was difficult yes, but all of the challenges were necessary. There is no growth without challenge. With regard to advanced editing techniques, I feel as though a given student learned as much as he or she wanted to. I never heard of Wasim refusing to delve into a particular aspect of editing with a student. The cameras should be taught slower yes, but you do learn a lot in the field. In some ways, going out and shooting is an easier way to learn than to be walked through camera functions. After this class, I feel confident that I can pick up any DSLR and figure out how to use it, indicating I've been taught to understand the camera functions, not just memorize them on a particular model. Professor Ahmad was VERY accessible, perhaps more so than any professor I have had class with in all of my college career.

My classmates have produced incredible work, pieces that I am so proud of that I show them to people outside of the class. The Journalism School is doing a good thing here and I have the utmost respect for it. That being said, I face the reality that I do not want to be a career journalist. The video editing and reporting skills honed in class however, will always serve me well, they are applicable to many different fields, Journalism is a discipline of personal sacrifice and dedication. If anything, I have come to admire the character of those who do journalism with all of their hearts, and love their craft.