5 things I wish I knew before...

Before I realized what I wanted to do with my life--write--I looked at news as a necessary but boring component of everyday life. I figured that when I was older, I might actually appreciate it. Until that day, though, it was just a way to bond with mom in the morning before the bus came.

When I finally realized I wanted to write, I was a senior in high school. I finally could admit to myself that science was not my foretold forte despite my family's predictions. 

I had some friends in journalism, and they seemed to really like it. Though I cared about English classes for the first time, I could never see myself rushing to deadlines, interviewing strangers, or being in a noisy newsroom. I still can't, really, and yet I'm immersed in its reality. 

There are five things I wish I knew before becoming a journalism student in college, regardless of my somewhat true ideas of what it entailed beforehand.

1) I wish I knew that journalism would only take over your life if you let it. There are plenty of journalists who do it for the love and hobby of it. There are others who want thousands of people to know their journalistic ways. Finding a middle ground is possible.

2) Talking to strangers isn't as scary as it sounds. With emails, phones, and internet, interviewing people can be fun and easy. And people love talking about themselves and their projects.

3) Journalism classes and books really will prepare you. 

4) Reading is the only way to be good at writing. That's what I learned when I read Stephen King's book on writing. That guy reads 80 novels a year. Some are on audio so that when he travels, he can listen. And almost all his books have been on the New York Time's Bestseller list. So yeah. I should probably start reading 80 novels a year. 

5) It's as hard as it looks. It's scary. It takes a great deal of time management and patience, even as a staff writer for a university paper. It's a challenge, but it has given me some of the best skills, intra- and interpersonal, that I could ask for.

*This blog idea was stolen from Corinne.