Oh, but those deadlines...

Time and time again I have been told by working journalists that studying the art of reporting is nothing like the real world of journalism. I never took that advice to heart until this year, when I was given the Oxford Police Department as a beat in my Senior Capstone course. I soon found myself given the proverbial pat on the back and a "good luck", and I was shoved out of the classroom door to find my own stories, interview my own sources, and put together an intelligent, well-written story by deadline.

I shrugged off my daunting task and figured that it would be easy – set up meeting times with sources, conduct the interviews, go home and compile the information, write the story. To my dismay, I soon found that my responsibility for my beat reporting, along with my 4 other classes for the semester, was draining every ounce of energy I had. I found myself running out of stories, arguing – as politely as possible – with difficult and uncooperative sources, and struggling to produce a story that was in-depth but not verbose. As soon as I completed one story, I needed to research and interview for my next one. So much for Senioritis.

It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that it struck me. I had just completed organizing my notes and interviews, and opened Microsoft Word to begin writing my story when I noticed it. At first, I was confused, and figured maybe I was just imagining things. But as I wrote more and more, I realized what it was. That fluttery feeling in my stomach just above my navel was nothing more than excitement. I was excited to write this story, excited to see where it took me, excited to perhaps stumble upon something that no one else had ever stumbled upon before.

It is this excitement that makes the stubborn sources, the uninformative interviews, and the neverending - but always present – deadlines worthwhile. I love the challenge, I love the difficulty, but most importantly of all, I love the reporting.

-- Rachel Waddick
Dec. 6, 2007