The beauty of it

Sometimes, being a journalist is great. The profession brings you satisfaction if you enjoy meeting people, talking to people and it compensates the anonymity you are condemned to – it’s difficult to be a star as a journalist, few people remember the name of the person who wrote a newspiece and if anybody does, he / she is likely to forget it as soon as the next newspaper is out. And that, my friends, is frustrating for some people.
Some of my positive experiences as a journalist until now:

• a press conference on insomnia at Crowne Plaza. I learned many new things and ate Roquefort cheese after the presentations.
• the article I wrote for a Civic Journalism Contest. While I was gathering information, I visited a refugee camp, I talked to lawyers, psychologists, refugees from different countries (a journalist from Turkey, young girls from Somalia and a family form Afganistan impressed me the most). I read hundreds of pages of legislation and history facts about the countries refugees come from. It was one of the most complex materials I have worked on. I won the second prize. More about that soon.
• a theater review I write for class after seeing a play I really enjoyed. I wrote it from the bottom of my heart. Dilema Veche published it [scroll down for my review]. It’s not incredible, but I loved the play and enjoyed writing that.
• a feature for the Bullet about school assignments. I took around ten interviews, one of them while climbing the stairs to the 14th floor of the Municipal Hospital. I took pictures, met so many interesting people. Loved every second of it.
• the article I’m working on right now about a jazz musician. Last night I had a blast interviewing the band. The concert was superb and I shared a table with a very nice (and good-looking, I may add) actor, a famous DJ and the manager of the bar. They were such a nice company. I’m going to write a good story, I’m sure.

Pour les connaisseurs*: sometimes, doing my job is more fun than having fun.

*For the ones who don’t know, one of the essays I had to write for the admission exams in Journalism School was entitled: “Work is more fun than fun itself” – you were allowed to agree or disagree the affirmation. I agreed, for the fun of argumenting.

🙂