J-SCHOOL

Okay, so since I made the decision some weeks back to apply to the Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, I've started reading the NYTimes. I now know what an insurgent is. I now know who Joseph Pulitzer is, I mean I better - he founded the school after all. I've been working on my essays and I feel stuck. I asked everyone I knew to "describe me," I thought that may help. I'm still stuck. Still looking for the most compelling way to let Columbia know who I am, what I'm about and why those things make me ideally suited for not only their school but a career in journalism. I want to be my generation's Nellie Bly. The process has been fun, reading the Times, learning things I didn't know. This past week, I visited a class at the Columbia J-School. I've started reading The Journalist and the Murderer.
In the past week somethings I've learned:
The significance of this date: December 17, 1903
James Garfield, the 20th President of the U.S. was murdered in office
The main character in Jules Verne's "Around the World is 80 Days" is Phileas Fogg
Nellie Bly travelled the world in 72 Days
The President of Afganistan is Hamid Karzai
The President of Egypt is Hosni Mubarak
The U.N. high commissioner for human right is Louise Arbour
Kofi Annan is the Secretary of the U.N. (okay maybe this was an easy one for most but remember I'm the one who had to look up insurgent)
You see what I'm discovering in this process of trying on being a journalist is that I can't know things like a normally know them, you know? I mean so someone asks you, "who's Kofi Annan?" and your thinking that's easy, "the head of the U.N.!" but like what's his title? right? And is it capitalized? And as I write this I think is that the proper punctuation? U.N.!" You gotta know these things if you are to be a journalist. I love this about me. I love that I got the email addresses of some of the students I meet at the information session for Columbia School of Journalism. I love that one of them informed me of a class that I sat in on. I love that the discussion in Richard Wald's class was about whether it is ever acceptable to lie. I love that I learned about the City News Bureau. I love that I immediately bought The Journalist and the Murderer because Professor Wald recommended it. I love that I know that recommendation has one "c" and two "m's". I even love that I have no idea how to punctuate that. (Okay I just looked in my copy of "Woe is I" and I think it's: two "m"s). YOU SEE THIS KIND OF LEARNING, I'm sort of blown away by it. I love that when I wanted to know the name of the building I was in, I not only looked at the building which was marked Graduate School of Journalism, but I asked a student standing outside, who confirmed that and then added it's referred to as the Journalism Building on maps. As I walked off campus I looked on one of the maps to verify this. Three weeks ago I would never have been this thorough. I think I spent so much of my life afraid of not knowing. Embracing my ignorance is really freeing now instead of worrying about not knowing, and what people will think of me, I use that energy to educate myself. It's fun.