Journey to Selflessness

I used to just be
concerned with me
It's not that I didn't
care about others
at all
Its just that I
was always concerned
with how things
affected me
Then, after seeing
that I was doing
no good
being bitter and mad
at the world
for my decisions
and current situations
I decided I didn't want
to be angry anymore
I wanted to be
happy and positive
When you try to
put the best foot forward
and do your utmost
best to make sure
that those around you
are happy
That is when you find
yourself.
Its not to say
you stop thinking and
making decisions about
yourself
But your world expands
so that the total
situation and people
are considered
I have a couple people
to thank for that
who aided in the journey
I think the main part
of the journey
was finding someone
who truly and completely
loves me for all
that I am
with all that he is

Looking Within

For the longest time
I was only concerned
with what everyone
else thought
what everyone else
wanted me to be
Whether it was
my peers or
making my parents happy
No matter what I did
I couldnt seem to
find a balance
I somewhere decided
that being what
everyone else wanted
was better
But now
luckily
I have fully found my
way back
I'm not seeking out some
standard of operation
I'm just happy being me
or at least the
me that I know
now
And learning more
about myself
I can honestly say
I haven't been happier
I just need to continue
to look within

Change/Coming to terms/???

It's funny how things change
how people grow
and some people stay
the same
Its also funny
to see parts of you
in other people
A former crush
of mine is getting
married soon
Weve kept in lose touch
over the past few
years
I've let him go
and let the friendship or
acquaintance grow
and found someone that
is far better for me
Than he could be then
or probably even now
Its also funny to realize
how much I've changed since
then and how
similar his soon-to-be wife
seem
I'm a lot more mature now
and have more direction
with my life
I also am a lot less
self-centered than
I used to be.
Its almost funny:
at one time I hated her
simply out of green-eyed
jealousy
Now I could see that she
could be, very easily
one of my friends
But that is because
I am older now
I've found my inner beauty
and then some
I can also see
the both of them too
I sometimes ponder
why I meet the people
I meet and why
some of them keep
in contact
and others just fade
away with the sunlight
at the end of the night
I think that we can learn a
lesson from everyone
Some lessons take longer
to learn
and some are meant to
be in our lives forever
All of which we
have no part in choosing.

poetic ramblings

"Journey of Happiness"

Sometimes I wonder
Just how did I
Get here?
I could have never
guessed that I could
be happy.
I thought I was
sentenced to be
the girl faking it.
The girl seeking out the
happiness that others
had.
The girl that continuously
sought out happiness
without fully knowing how to
look.
What I thought was happiness
was just a cloak of soulless hedonism.
I hadn't looked deep within
for the constant feeling
that was necessary, yet
out of reach.
Until, I made a change.
At the time it was unconscious.
I had simply decided to change locations.
Suddenly and ever so slightly,
my horizon changed.
I suddenly felt as
though I had all the
power in the world.
My old insecurities seemed to
slip away.
I was able to escape the
identity that I had somehow
foraged a way to create
and start
anew.
I got to find a way back
to my roots.
To the person I had always
known, but somehow
had left me far behind.
Because my spirit became
awakened
I was able to find true
inner peace and love.
I also finally
found someone who
respected and loved me
truly.
I have no other way to
describe it other
than I am truly
blessed and happy.
Inner peace and love
combined with someone who
can find beauty where
you can't 100 pecent
see all of it
is truly amazing.

The latest battle: business owners

I am currently trying to write a story about a business owner who is opening up a new business.

As far as I know, and logic can dictate, he would want the publicity. Publicity would only draw customers in. It would bring out the curious customers who do not happen to hear about he restaurant. I would find that a little bit hard to believe that people haven't heard about it, since I am writing about a small town. Nonetheless, I am trying just to do an informative article with hope of a feature angle.

This is still proving a struggle.

At the moment, I am playing phone tag. A scheduled call (since I am without transportation for the moment) wasn't even quite enough.

I am trying to be understanding. I can't imagine owning a business being an easy venture. I'm sure plenty stress exists without a journalist trying to call and take up valuable time.

However, I am getting increasingly frustrated and irritated. I see this as a simple story that I should be able to get done. I can't foresee the interview taking much more than 20 minutes.

Does anyone know of any tips?

I am determined to interview this gentleman. The funny thing is that, as of yet, I've yet to know his name, much less how I will spell it in my article.

Since I've been a little lackluster...

I am fully planning on putting up a couple real posts later in the week. To come: Information from Coffee Party meetings, and new story commentary. What can I say? I've been a little busy bee. That just means I have more to share with you.

For now, I feel compelled so share some linkage with you. These stories are catching my eye. If you didn't know about them, I hope I've sparked your interest.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/236999

This seems very homophobic. I don't really like how this was written, an am glad that a few have spoken out about it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/10/the-funniest-news-freeze_n_568372.html

Everyone needs a little amusement. Heres's something I found.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/teachable-moments----but_b_569476.html

I dig other blogs too! Here's one I've stumbled upon.

http://www.usatoday.com/video/index.htm?bctid=83733863001#/%22Glee%22+actress+Lea+Michele/83733863001

I'm slightly engrossed by Glee right now. I'm a total Gleek, to be fair.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2010-05-10-editorial10_ST_N.htm

I agree completely! This seems to overstep a horrible boundary!

Hopefully these were tasty for you. Let me know what you think!

the current climate

I've been to several recent meetings of a political nature. I walked away with a new prospective. I suppose its not really a new prospective, just something that was enhanced by people I ran into. It is also something that poses an interesting question for me.

The public really doesn't trust many, if any at all, American journalists.

This is not something new to me, but something I suppose I had pushed out of my mind slightly.

One claim is the amount of bias and propaganda. The people I listened to say they miss the objectivity of a newscast from yesteryear. Today has too much political leaning for anything to be considered free of bias. Some networks are even known for their leaning, even though I will not name names. Some of that has been explained by the nature of journalism as a business.

It would also seem, from their viewpoint that many reporters are shying away from being hard-hitting. Many of them, for whatever reason, are not doing big investigative pieces. Many of them are being pushed away from those. As a tiny amount of insight, that could be coming from the upper level. It isn't necessarily about what story sells the most ( although I'm sure sometimes that is the case). It may be that its about money in the sense of salary. Many newspapers don't have time, money or people to expend toward investigative pieces. Ergo, a lot of press release, fed from mouth of political agenda person, gets put out as news.

I would, as some other people, like to see hunger for facts and fact-checking. Many people argue that has gone away.

Another argument was what gets coverage by the media. This is something I've written about before. It seems as though the level of newsworthiness has changed from what it used to be. Rallies in Springfield don't get coverage, but other things like Tiger Woods do. It doesn't seem as though many stories about the wars of Irag and Afghanistan have been reported upon recently, either.

So, with all this criticism, one question remains for me. Since I love journalism and want to make it my career, how do I change this? What can I do to regain the public's trust, and become all the things that I strive for?

stories that warm the heart

I am currently doing some work for the St. Joseph Leader. Its a small, weekly paper in the Central Illinois area. One of the few weekly newspapers that is still left.

I have been given a story to work on dealing with the Oakland community.

Although I like investigative journalism as much as anyone else, this is one that comes straight from the heart.

The local American Legion is asking for names of active duty soldiers to put on street signs.

Many wouldn't see this as any sort of ground-breaking story. I, however, love stories like this. Stories that have any kind of feature angle that make one feel good. Reporting on all the bad stuff is good and necessary. However, it is nice to have a story to tell that doesn't involve someone being victimized by another.

I understand the reason for writing the stories that have been deemed 'gotcha journalism.' I am a huge fan of those stories for their own merit. Many times something is exposed that the general public has a need to know about.

Those are the stories that I, one day, hope I can help uncover.

Right now though, I will take my feel good pieces. They help me remember that, in all the stress of daily life, good still exists in the world. Sometimes this can be hard to remember.

What type of news do you prefer to hear about?

The loveliness of the language

I don't characterize myself to know everything about grammar.

I'm sure plenty know more than me about spelling and grammar combined.

However, it is amazing how proper grammar hits my ear just right.

Our society hasn't deemed it important to know grammar. Our importance is with knowing who has most recently updated their twitter pages. Also, the shortest way to get the point across through a text message. The days of letter writing seem to be long gone.

It appears, at some point, our society has lost a grip on grammar.

I can illustrate this fact with a recent job I took on. A friend of mine recently sent me a short story that she wrote. She was simply looking for content feedback. Plus, she wanted someone else, that she trusted, to read it.

After not being that long into reading it, I knew I would take on a greater job. I decided to edit it. This was a two-part decision. First, I figured it would be something that she would really love. Next, I figured I could brush up on my editing skills that had lied dormant for a little while.

I would, in no way, shape or form, characterize my friend as unintelligent. She graduated from college with honors. She also has a wealth of 'street smarts.' I'm not sure at what point or why, but grammar was never a high importance.

In my experience, it would seem she is in the majority.

I find this odd, simply for the fact that basic communication skills are a way of survival. I also find it odd, that some common misspellings aren't always noticed by everyone. It is as though we've gotten used to them.

I, personally, aim to be as correct as I can with my grammar and spelling. By no means am I perfect. I just want to emphasize this in my daily life.

As for editing her story? It drew an odd sense of purpose and passion from me. I truly loved editing it. The content was pretty good at keeping my focus, though. I'm not sure if that made it easier to edit or not. Nonetheless, I enjoyed editing it.

What is news today?

As a young journalism student, I learned the values of news under direction of Ms. Sally Turner. We learned six things that makes something in public discourse newsworthy.

One of those items was the person involved in the story. For example, nearly everything Barack Obama does is considered newsworthy because he is the President of the United States.

It seems that line has become blurred today.

I have no problem with people like Paris Hilton or Kate Gosselin getting news coverage. I would just prefer it be in their own venue.

I don't enjoy seemingly continuous celebrity coverage on places like CNN.

The news of Tiger Woods' return to golf after his martial issues is newsworthy. However, I don't think it deserved enough coverage to out-shadow the death of the Polish president. Even though thats precisely what it did.

Admittedly, I have my moments in which I want to escape into celebrity news. That is what I consider that type of information: escapism. I don't base my life on who wore what or who is dating whom. It can just be fun sometimes.

When seeking out the information, I turn to E! News or what not.

However, I do not turn to CNN to find out this information. Yet, that is what is happening more and more.

Remember what happened when Micheal Jackson died?

I completely understand giving him coverage. He was, after all, the King of Pop. No other person could match his contributions to the art in the modern day. But after respects were paid, coverage couldn't seem to cease. Hard news journalists repeated the same information for a week straight with nothing new to report. This seemed to blur the lines of newsworthy and not newsworthy.

I can't help but wonder: Why such the obsession with celebritydom?

Many reports have come out saying that such obsession is bad for us, psychologically. It supports physical ideals that are unattainable, thus bad body images. It distracts us from taking care of our lively problems. It can promote debt to keep up with an image.

Those are just a few of the things I remember reading about obsession with celebritydom.

What do you think about what is news? What do you think about celebrities?

A conundrum in the journalism world

To those that know me, it's no secret that I've been working with the Wal-Mart corporation for a little bit now. What once served as a way to get me through college is becoming something thats feeding my bills while I search for the job I actually want.

I would love to be in the newsroom environment everyday. For a combination of reasons, that hasn't quite happened quite yet. I firmly believe that when the correct time comes and the stars align themselves, I will attain the job I desire.

For the moment, I am trying to find various ways to break into the field.

This concept, however, is not the point of this blog in particular.

The point is the power that journalists once held. Journalists were once considered a fourth estate of the government. Now, access seems slightly more limited.

I thought of this notion while at work on Thursday.I was informed by several people that the Champaign Wal-Mart (I work at the one in Urbana) had small fire issue and had to evacuate.

It was nothing more than lightening striking just the right place and creating a little bit of smoke. With the hint of smoke, possibility of fire was presumed and thus the evacuation.

No one was harmed by the lightening strike, and it wasn't long before the store was back to business as usual.

I,however, began to ponder what would've happened in the case that something bigger did happen. Also, what would've happened had that happened and the local papers come knocking/calling.

I'm not sure what events put the policy in place, but no one in the store would be allowed to make any comments to the reporters. The Home Office would have to be called and spoken to and then only the possibility of anyone in the store speaking to reporters could exist.

To me, this seems like a small freedom of speech violation. I doubt (I hope) the company would go so far as firing someone who talked to a member of the press. Especially if it was a strictly just the facts situation. I could understand the notion more so (although it doesn't mean I necessarily support it)if the member of the Wal-Mart team went to the press with criticism or sensitive information.

Not only is this a battle for employees, but a battle for journalists. How are journalists supposed to be watchdogs and question the government if those governed aren't allowed to? By no means do I think the American public have their speech limited. Otherwise we wouldn't have the Tea Party and the alike.

I'm merely suggesting less information is being allowed out to the public. I definitely don't see this as a positive.

What do you think? Do you have similar stories?

I cannot believe we are still fighting this fight

Click Here

I found this story on CNN this morning, and my link is obviously from Yahoo News.

In my mind, I am shocked that a fight like this still exists. I thought several health and psychological studies, along with sociological work had already found what works better.

I guess the argument will still loom.

The opponents that wish for abstinence-only education are signaling the long-time battle cry that the less teenagers know, the better for them.

I cannot help but wonder what thoughts these people hold for information coming from our government. Sure, it may be a thought coming completely from left field. I'll admit that. I, however, am not of the belief that ignorance is bliss. I believe that knowledge is power. I would love for the citizens to know all the workings of the government to better exercise their votes. This is, without censorship and all of that.

I feel a similar concept applies here. Teenagers typically want to test a variety of boundaries, especially when told 'no.' When told no repeatedly, it only makes them want the action more, in combination with raging hormones. Knowledge would clear up misconceptions and myths about sex that consume the teenage mind. The knowledge promotes smarter action.

I could understand the hesitance if teachers were crossing levels of education, such as going so far as discussing sexual positions. This is rarely the case for a sexual education course.

I grew up in an environment that promoted knowledge. My twin brother and I received condoms from our parents on our 16th birthday. This 'present' followed the notion that they would rather us wait for sexual activity until marriage. However, they realize that things can happen and would rather us be safe than sorry.

I would rather the greater America be safe than sorry. Schools and parents must work together to make sure kids are getting all the knowledge they need. Some homes are not as informative as the one I came from. Kids need to learn one way or another about safe sex practices. Just telling them to wait will not do the trick. It will only stir curiosity. An expanded curriculum gives them power.

Welcome to the Blog

Hello to my fellow writers and journalists.

I've recently realized that I have had something missing in my life as of late: writing.

While I was a student at Eastern Illinois University, working at the student newspaper kept me going. I had an outlet for my vision and creativity. I was also allowed to explore a variety of things that were new to me including design and podcasting.

I've yet to be able to make my way into a journalism career. I would love for that to be in writing and editing, although public relations isn't looking too shabby either.

I am starting this blog as a way to get back to my roots. I need to keep writing more and more to feel whole. I need my creativity expressed.

I plan to use this blog to discuss issues in journalism and current events. I like feature work because I feel as though it gets at the heart of the story. The subject is allowed to truly shine.

I may also post some poetry from time to time, as I have not written very much lately.

I am also willing to take your suggestions for anything you'd like me to write about.