What I learned

Oh, the first article…

 

Somehow I pictured it a little differently. Nonetheless, I won’t ever forget the experience and what all I learned along the way. I decided to write about online dating. I found out about a plenty of fish party in town the weekend I finally decided my topic. I thought yay… was meant to be. I can get my interviews right away and possibly get headshots and who knows what… NOT. I was so nervous before I got there because I am terribly shy, but I got brave and went anyways because I had to get it done. However, when I got there it sort of seemed like a scam… not to mention it was in a bad area. The guy on the website who said he was hosting was definitely not the guy who was hosting the party in person. Also, everyone was already paired off. Not sure, but to me it seemed like the event was a way to advertise the bar.  I saw an older man who I thought I could interview, but he left and when I noticed, I went out to find him but he was already gone. I was soaked by the rain and had no interviews. Lesson learned here was to have a backup plan and not to let the obstacles bring you down, just keep going…

 

I finally was able to get other interviews scheduled, but some ended up rescheduling. I ran into other problems. For example, one lady told me she had a phobia about talking to someone she doesn’t know one the phone after we had a phone interview scheduled. Almost everyone tried to have their last names omitted. However, I worked some charm and  in the end all interviews went well. I was so glad for that because that was the part I was most nervous about. Now for my expert interview, I learned NOT to wait on the person… Go out and find someone! ASAP… even if that is the first interview you get. I ended up calling, emailing and visiting the offices of three different professors and nothing. I was all over campus trying to get it done. I ended up driving to Kissimmee for interview because I wanted to experience that in comparison to a phone interview. I was able to find someone in the working field, which I was so thankful for because I was running out of time. This is just the reason why I hate to procrastinate.

 

The writing was the most difficult part for me. I turned in many drafts, especially throughout the weekend. For some reason, I just couldn’t get it together. I think perhaps I spent too much time on it. I probably could have turned away from it for one day to get a clear perspective. Also, I learned that less is more! Keep all my quotes together and have one speaker speak at a time so it’s easy to read. Organization is the key. I also learned to keep my opinions out of it. It’s just something that happens naturally, but I’m learning to control that. At one point during this process, it made me believe that I am not a good writer after all, but it’s a different kind of writing and just something I need to get used to. This is the first article I’ve worked on, wasn’t the best, but I hope I can apply what I learned on the next article.

 

Even though I’m sure I may have missed a few things, I do apologize for the length. I had a lot to say… J

Thanks for reading!

 

Alicia