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Something more light-hearted

I'm a very lucky person. I've known what I wanted my career to be since elementary school. Not many people, even after college, know what they want to do with their lives. I feel blessed to have chosen a great profession and to be able to stick with it.

I've wanted to be a journalist since the sixth grade, and have followed that dream. There's something about knowing that your work can really affect people and create positive change that makes the job worthwhile. It takes a lot of people to get a story from its conception to publication and I'm proud to be one of the hands that touches an article before its final release into the world.

We're very lucky to know that although the news may change form, people will always need news and the government will always need a watchdog.


Published Wednesday, April 11, 2007 2:28 PM by ElysseJames
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Comments

# re: Something more light-hearted

Thursday, April 12, 2007 11:56 AM by SonyaSmith
Yeah, I feel the same way Elysse.
I'm such a journalism nerd I started my own newspaper in fourth grade! Sure it was only for back to school night and open house, but still. I was on newspapers in middle school and high school. Funny that when I first started college I didn't think about majoring in journalism because I didn't think I could ever actually get hired (well, most don't). But, thankfully I learned early on that I did not want to teach elementary school and found refuge in the Daily 49er dungeon. Now, looking back, I couldn't think of anything else I'd want to be. I'm a journalist through and through!

# re: Something more light-hearted

Thursday, April 12, 2007 3:58 PM by GenePark
I was probably the only person I knew who immediately declared a major in the first quarter of my freshman year. I started out interning at the local paper when I was in high school, and I figured I had found my calling since I was told I had a lot of potential.

After I got my degree, I did have post-graduation doubt, especially after being inundated with journalism experiences (two editorial positions at the school paper, on top of back-to-back journalism classes and two consecutive internships all in one semester). I applied for a public relations job at L.A. firm Golin Harris, who is the marketing agency for McDonald's and Nintendo. I got rejected. Part of the application process asked me to help promote the hula hoop in 2003, as if the product never existed.

It was probably the tagline I wrote for the product: "See what the hoop-la's all about!" That probably didn't fly well with them...

# re: Something more light-hearted

Friday, April 13, 2007 2:43 AM by Maria Trombly
Elysse --

I feel exactly the same way. I've been a journalist for 15 years and haven't regretted it at all. I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a little kid, though, as a daughter of immigrants, I was strongly pressured to study "hard" subjects in college. I wound up graduating with a math degree, and everybody told me that there was no way I could ever write for a living, but I did. Journalism is the only job I've ever had when, even on the worst days, it's better than the best days at all the other jobs I've had. Though there was once one day when I was teaching a bunch of fifth graders how to program computer games that was fun. And I did like the cheese garlic breads when I was a waitress at a Greek restaurant...

As a journalist, I got to work at one of the biggest papers in the US, cover wars, interview presidents, cover the dot-com boom and, now, the China gold rush. I really do feel that I've had a front-row seat watching history being made.

Living the life in Shanghai,

Maria
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