Final Entry

As the semester winds down, we all get anxious to just finish off the year and start something fresh. Christmas is approaching and we all wander aimlessly around the newsroom wondering what to buy our significant others, parents, and so on. We think about making plans for the New Year and what new resolution we can come up with. School seems to be the furthest thing from our minds.

Sweat and Convergence have all come to an end and it seems as though we are all looking forward to putting magazine behind us and getting ready to enter the world of newspaper and weekly deadlines. I know for myself I will be looking forward into entering the realm of broadcast as I make the transition to the other side, bidding adieu to my print buddies.

Then I think about final grades coming in and choosing my elective for next semester. This semester I obviously opted to take independent media, not truly knowing nor understanding what the class was about. I later found out that we never needed to attend class we just needed to post a weekly blog. A piece of cake I thought!

Definitely not. Not having a teacher to remind you weekly that something was due, seemed to be a daunting challenge for myself. I would always remember that I needed to write something on Tuesday afternoon and I would rush home from work to make sure that I got to a computer on time.

I found it most difficult to come up with something interesting to say or something worthwhile reading. I can only hope that some of my experiences could help others grasp the idea of what it is like to work full time go to school full time and work on a magazine and or internship.

Unfortunately this semester I was not able to do an internship, so I opted to work full time and go to school and worry about it next semester. That next semester snuck up on me all too quickly. Now I find myself looking at different media outlets, drafting my resume package together and sending off my resume.

One way this class really helped me was that I got to read my fellow classmates entries and read up on some of their experiences at their internships and how they handled going to school, sometimes working and doing an internship. I found out what worked and what didn't and best of all they are all people I can put a face to.

My idea of blogging hasn't changed. I still regard it as a way to express yourself freely. I regard it more so as an online diary. Something people can read and understand more of what kind of person I am and read about my thoughts on certain issues.

Maybe the fact that I don't see blogging as a form of journalism and I used it as an online diary did not attract readers to look at it. Does it bother me? Not at all, I will use this blogging experience as a way to reflect on this past semester.

Throughout my blog entries I never attached any pictures, and only attached a few links. None of the entries had relevant pictures to go along with it, and this one is no different. But because our final entry requires some sort of picture to go along with it. I am attaching pictures of recent vacations I have been on. One to New York City, where I visited Ground Zero and one to Cuba. I attach the picture at Ground Zero because since the events of September 11th, I think that the media took a turn for the worse, scaring the public into thinking that under every stone lay a terrorist. I attach the pictures of Cuba, because as much as I love Fidel Castro, I do not agree that he does not allow for free press in his country. Something I think my fellow classmates would love to open a debate on.

To everyone else who decides to take a gander at my entries, HAPPY HOLIDAYS and HAPPY READING!

Rosanna

The Joy of Chirstmas Shopping and Growing Up

I will start off this entry by talking about something that is not journalism related whatsoever. It's more so just food for thought.

This year I decided to get a part time job at my favourite store, Aritzia. I wanted this job for a number of reasons but have realized in the last month since I have been employed there, that I can no longer succumb to working retail, part time jobs, even if it means getting a great discount. I realized that I was ready after graduation this year to get into the "real world" and into the workforce. The fact that I work at the Yorkdale location could add to my realization.

Yorkdale during the year is crazy. Parking is almost impossible to achieve. Christmas is just utter mayhem. This newly renovated mall, turns into a free for all. It gets intense. You see the stress on parent's faces to get their daughter the newest TNA bag. They often say, "Oh my god, my daughter is going to tweak if she doesn't get that bag." Hundreds and I literally mean hundreds of bags get shipped to the store in order to avoid any daughter from "tweaking."

I ask myself whatever happened to the true meaning of Christmas?

The other part of my blog entry also deals with growing up. At almost 24 years old I am just getting my first wisdom tooth on the lower left side of my mouth. It's excruciating pain I cannot handle and if it doesn't stop throbbing, than I am going to tweak!