All the wrong questions

I have never been more inundated in journalism as I was yesterday. My entire Saturday disappeared as I sat in front of this computer finalizing the layout of the monthly newspaper I am co-editor in chief of. I picked up layout where my co left off around 12 p.m. By the time I emailed the pages out to the publisher, it was almost 11 p.m. Half the weekend gone and I hadn't even begun the four stories I have to write for class/other publications.

Now I've finished one article and am halfway through the second one. In the course of all this reporting, I've realized something. I don't know how to ask the proper questions. You know, the interesting ones, the probing ones that get really colorful quotes. Take this one article I'm writing for example. It's about film classes on campus. In the middle of writing the article, I go to insert a quote from a student I interviewed, and here's what I have to choose from. "Film is something I'm interested in," "This class fills up quickly" and "It's exactly what I expected." Nothing earth-shattering, nothing mind-blowing, nothing even halfway decent. These statements can apply to 97.5 percent of the film classes offered at any university.

Most people, no, make that pretty much every person, would usually not choose to put themselves through such a rigorous pre-professional program unless they actually wanted to go into that field. Of course, we've all learned by now that I'm not like most people. Freshman and sophomore year I was constantly thinking, I don't know what to do, should I drop this major. Now, all that anxiety is gone. It's like I've finally made peace with myself. I may complain every day about it, but the thought of dropping the major has left my mind the way the autumn leaves fall off the trees. You don't actually notice when they drop, but one day you look up, and they're gone. One day I just accepted that I was graduating with both degrees no matter what.

But the entire thing has taught me one thing. I finally understand the meaning behind a love-hate relationship. I keep saying I hate it, but I keep getting more and more involved in it. This week was my first time doing layout, and I devoted about 20 hours to it this week. I'm writing more articles at one time than I ever have. And while I dread calling and interviewing people, when the time comes for me to actually write up the story, I find myself kind of enjoying it. To be able to take a jumble of fact, quotes and data and synthesize into something readable, now that's something. But I know that no matter how good it feels to see that finished product, there is absolutely no way I could build a career just on that article-writing.