Well, it’s only May 1st and I feel as though the beginning of my internship at News 4 Buffalo happened over a year ago instead of in January. Time seems to almost have stood still over these past few weeks and it’s almost hard to fathom that the spring semester is coming to a close. Every day I have to wake up and remind myself of the fact I am still in school, otherwise I don’t think I would get a single assignment accomplished!
School has been anything but normal over this past month, but as soon as I started getting comfortable with the concept of online learning, school is over!! This unorthodox classroom setting has just thrown me for a loop and now I am even wondering if I’ll be shell shocked once we’re back in the real classroom: “What do you mean I can’t wear my pajamas to the first day of class!?”- A conversation I will most definitely be having with my roommates come fall.
Anyways, this past week I decided to look back at the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the semester and it honestly made me laugh to see what I wrote and how I had to adjust them to our current reality. In terms of my internship, I had ambitions to create two news packages to add to my newsreel and practice a few different stand-ups, whether I was out in the field reporting or behind a desk in the newsroom. I can admit I had to dial those goals back with my internship being cut short and having to be more creative on my content production end.
At home, I have been able to create one news package about the streaming of online mass and how parishes and their parishioners have adapted to this new setting. Fortunately, I was able to record a couple of stand-ups early in my internship, but I didn’t have the chance of getting behind the anchoring desk at Channel 4:(
Although this semester did not pan out anywhere near what I had hoped or anticipated, I truly believe there are some wonderful silver linings to take away from this experience. The first being that, as a journalist, I have had to learn to adapt to these surroundings and still find ways to produce content with almost bare necessities. There has never been a better time to learn how to be creative than right now. Secondly, this COVID-19 pandemic has given me bonus time with my family that I would have never had if I was still at school in Buffalo and in the middle of my racing season. Internships will come and go, but time with my family is irreplaceable.
In moving forward with school and future internships, I think this entire situation has made me a mentally stronger person and has shown me how success truly comes from a place of self-motivation. Although I am home with family, there are no coaches, teammates, or professors telling me what to do or where to go daily. Some days, motivation is one of the hardest things to come by but once I find it, it is beyond reassuring knowing that I can still accomplish things on my own.
All in all, I am so looking forward to getting back to “normal” activities in the fall and continuing to explore a career in broadcasting beyond my bedroom walls.
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