A Post-whirlwind Reflection

This past week has been kind of crazy. Over the past several days my workload has been tremendously high, leaving my emotions to ride a roller-coaster and my body to run on fumes. Yet in the midst of all the madness, there were moments that distracted me from all the stress, like God had given me a glass of sweet tea to wash out the sour taste in my mouth.

I guess I should start from the beginning of last week. According to my planner, I had to memorize all of my lines for the show I’m in for that Tuesday, take the final exam for my journalism class on Wednesday, contribute intellectual thought to a graded discussion on Thursday, write a two page essay on a film I hadn’t seen for Friday, live tweet the Tiny Texas Podcast Festival on Sunday and write an eight page essay on Blade Runner and a novel that I hadn’t read for Monday, also known as yesterday. On top of all this, I had to go to work for 30+ hours. So it was a lot.

Of course, this meant that I probably didn’t sleep or shower as much as I should have. It definitely may have gotten to the point where my study break was to get ready for work the next day because I knew that sleep wasn’t going to happen. It also may be that I pulled an all-nighter where all I drank was coffee (flavored with delicious coconut creamer).

Even though all of these events felt like the worst thing that possibly could have been happening, just writing them out makes them seem trivial. However, I would like you all to know that they were not trivial, they were moments that made me want to pull out my hair. College in this day and age is no easy feat.

While college today is harder than it was in the past, I’m glad for it. If college graduates of the past survived a thunderstorm, that means I survived a freaking hurricane. (This is besides the point, but I just thought I would make it known.)

Since college is hard and karma is a thing, there are lighter moments, such as the Heavenly sweet tea that I mentioned earlier. I must note, though, that these moments are only lighter. They are not rewarding because college is not rewarding until you graduate. The end of a stressful week does not feel accomplishing or prideful. It just feels like the gasp of air that the tide lets you have right before the water drags you back under.

But back to the sweet tea. I got to sip it here and there.

One taste of its sweetness came in the form of the International Symposium on Online Journalism. Out of the 30+ hours that I worked, 20 of them came from my job at the Blanton Museum of Art, which just so happened to be the venue for ISOJ. Even though my job was to sit by the door of the auditorium and ban people from entering with food and/or beverages, I felt like a little kid in a candy store. Except I was a nineteen year old girl surrounded by professional journalists. And I didn’t want to eat them. I just wanted to talk to them.

Between the Friday and Saturday that the symposium took place, I got to talk with a BBC journalist from Miami, I was able to listen to the segment on audio storytelling, and I received a goodie bag, courtesy of my manager who was kind enough to ask for souvenirs for me. (I got a nice, canvas tote bag, some pens and a coffee mug). I also gained some hilarious memories, such as during their cocktail hour where I had to chase down people who tried to leave the building with alcohol. Not everyone gets to say that they sprinted after and bossed around a stranger who may be there boss in the future, but I do.

I guess I should say that the sweet tea was flavored with journalism because the next sips that I got were that Sunday with the Tiny Texas Podcast Festival. I got to sit in on a live recording of Views with Brews and listen to a talk about public radio in the era of podcasting. While I was there for an assignment (you can search @_sabrinakaye to see my tweets), it was an enlightening moment. I learned about what it means to have your own voice and what the future of radio might look like. I even got to ask a question about how someone should go about creating conversational podcasts in today’s visual world. The answer I received was one of the most beautiful, touching statements I have ever heard: “Radio is the most visual medium.”

This small sentence took me back to one of the first podcasts I ever listened to from 60 Minutes. There was a story about crocodiles in the Nile River, and the audio from the scuba divers painted this vivid image in my head that, to this day, has never left my mind. Maybe I might try my hand in radio. We’ll see.

…..

In this calm before the next storm that is finals, it was refreshing to sit back, open up my laptop and write about this past week. It’s incredible that it all swept by like a gust of wind, but in the moment it felt like I was drowning. The world stops for no one, but it’s nice to pause and observe where you are and compare it to where you used to be. I’m still in the water, but the waves are easy now.