M.I.A.

I have been so swamped with life, school, and learning time management (which has never been my strong suit) that I've fallen behind on updating my blog. What can I say about journalism school, now that I've been at it for five weeks? It's been equal parts exciting and disappointing, for reasons I'll explain on a one--one, not over the internet where teachers/fellow students can read, basis. But here's a quick run down of what I've been up to:

• I've been assigned the education beat in my newswriting class turned newsroom. Right now I feel like I have to do so much research to even begin to understand the beast that is Chicago Public Schools and their programs, but I have a couple of stories lined up already and I think I'll learn a lot during the next five weeks. After they've run on our interschool website (and if I pitch them to a newspaper/magazine), I'll post them on my blog.
• I've changed direction. Going into the program I was positive I wanted to get on the magazine journalism track, create a magazine prototype (the main reason I loved Medill's program), and take the optional fifth quarter to study abroad either in Paris or Lagos, Nigeria. Now I'm 90% sure I'm going to switch my major to Interactive Storytelling, which would focus on using text and multimedia to tell stories, skills I think will be invaluable no matter which direction journalism heads. I would still take a class in long-form narrative writing and non-fiction to get a solid foundation in writing, but my interests are definitely taking me toward multimedia. Also, since the optional 5th quarter has a mandatory extra tuition payment, I'll graduate in four quarters. Still deciding what my last project will be: DC, magazine prototype, or Interactive Innovation.
  
• I'm a writer for Honey Magazine online! I have a blog on the website that once I get my act together will feature profiles, events, and issues targeted at a multicultural, mostly African American female audience. I'll post a link on here when I put something up.