Who knew a class with the word "introduction" in the title would be the hardest class I would take? Who knew that the professor I thought was the ultimate jerk who turn out to be my favorite professor?
Here is what I have learned. When you dedicate so much time to something, you learn to love it.
This semester I put hours upon hours into my journalism class. It seemed like every time someone asked me what homework I was working on, my reply was consistently journalism.
Between weekly quizzes, weekly online discussion, weekly articles, staying up to date on The Salt Lake Tribune, Hell week, and one heck of a real Crucible, I was booked. Literally I didn't go one day this semester without working on that class. Including the weekends. News never sleeps. And I guess because news never sleeps, LaPlante thought his students shouldn't either.
Although this sounds like hell (and trust me, it was) it was the most rewarding course I have ever taken. Besides improving my writing technique and grammar skills, I grew immensely as a person.
As a child, I was the kid who would hid behind my mom's legs when someone talked to me. I was the kid whose face would turn completely red if the teacher said my name out loud in front of the class (and yes, I still into a tomato on occasion).
Though I outgrew a lot of this shyness through the years, talking to new people was not something I outgrew.
Until I had this class.
This class forced me into searching people out, introducing myself, asking people personal questions along with way more social interaction than I would have ever done voluntarily.
Even last week when I was trying to figure out my living situation for next year, I didn't hesitate at all to call the landlord or knock on a complete strangers door to ask if I could look around their house. As silly as it seems, these sort of things would have given me major anxiety months ago. Just look at me go now!
Besides this, I learned to appreciate tough love. I am not exaggerating at all when I say LaPlante is the scariest man I have ever met. Or at least that is what I thought at the beginning of the semester.
He dropped the F-bomb on the daily. Sometimes saying sentences that consisted of "effidy eff eff eff", or casually mixing a word, place or someone's name along with it. He ripped apart my work in front of the class multiple times. I was singled out in front of the class on several occasions for something I did wrong. At first, it was humiliating. I strutted into that class believing I was the best writer in there, just like all the other students. This class humbled me and taught me a heck a lot about things you wouldn't even realize went into newswriting.
LaPlante is one of the coolest people I have ever met. He has experienced and seen some crazy things. I was completely captivated every time he shared a story with us. Little did I know before, journalists seriously have the capability to experience things the average person would never dream of. When you work up your credibility, earn people's trust and do your research, the payoff is unreal.
This class gave me a little taste of the payoff journalism can give if it is done correctly.
I remember the first week of class, there were not enough chairs for everyone in the room. One by one, the class got smaller everyday. As I took the breaking news final yesterday, I sat among 11 other people. More than half had dropped out at various points during the semester. Some even dropped out two weeks ago, in the midst of the crazy Crucible.
Only the strong survived this class and I am proud to say I was one of the few who made it. I may have been staggering, maybe even crawling on my hands and knees as I crossed the finish line, but I did it.
Before we took our breaking news final yesterday afternoon, LaPlante asked us if we were ready. The girl next to me replied, and I quote, "Hell yeah."
Without a determined attitude, this class would have been impossible. Each day I became more and more determined to prove that I deserved to be in this class.
I wasn't mistaken when I heard this class referred to as a boot camp.
It kicked my butt. And I kicked it right back.
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