Spring Break
Changing majors: junior realizes journalism isn't for him
Columnist advises others to follow their heart
Jeanine Savageau
Issue date: 1/31/02 Section: Editorial/Opinion
I was finishing the fall of my junior year here at UW-Eau Claire and well on my way to becoming the next Katie Couric, or so I had people fooled into thinking. Since my senior year of high school I thought it would be so cool to sit behind a news desk with Diana Pierce on KARE 11, read from a Teleprompter and then have our post-news banter with the meteorologist.
I enrolled at Eau Claire in the Communication and Journalism department with the expectation I could go anywhere. I mean I was cute, I had a little spunk and people always tell me I talk too much. I thought those were perfect qualifications for someone interested in having a morning talk show. Then I actually started taking classes. I thought it was because I needed to get a "feel" for classes and college life that I didn't do so well the first semester, or first year for that matter.
I gave my sophomore year another chance. I tried to work hard in my classes, but they were uninteresting to me. I basically did what I had to do to get by. I hated doing stories for one of my classes because I felt like I was bugging people. I always managed to stutter or screw up my words when I was trying to ask "meaningful" questions. I was faced with the reality that reporting wasn't just getting my makeup done and sitting in front of a camera as I read off a story someone else wrote. It actually took a little work, work I wasn't cut out to do.
At this point most people would see red flags going up, but I think mine were busted so I proceeded to move on into my junior year. I was enrolled in a technical writing class because it was this very beneficial minor I was going to pursue.
I was even more unmotivated to be in that class, but thankfully my professor and I had a little meeting about a paper I was writing and we hit something in my life. He asked me why I was going into journalism and I just sat there with a blank look on my face…ummmm….because I like to talk. Ummmm, because I like television. It was horrible! He asked me if that's what I really wanted to do. It was as though I was looking at my life from a different angle because no, I didn't like journalism! I didn't like being assertive and asking questions about peoples' lives! I didn't like writing leads to stories! And I hated reading the newspaper!
I enrolled at Eau Claire in the Communication and Journalism department with the expectation I could go anywhere. I mean I was cute, I had a little spunk and people always tell me I talk too much. I thought those were perfect qualifications for someone interested in having a morning talk show. Then I actually started taking classes. I thought it was because I needed to get a "feel" for classes and college life that I didn't do so well the first semester, or first year for that matter.
I gave my sophomore year another chance. I tried to work hard in my classes, but they were uninteresting to me. I basically did what I had to do to get by. I hated doing stories for one of my classes because I felt like I was bugging people. I always managed to stutter or screw up my words when I was trying to ask "meaningful" questions. I was faced with the reality that reporting wasn't just getting my makeup done and sitting in front of a camera as I read off a story someone else wrote. It actually took a little work, work I wasn't cut out to do.
At this point most people would see red flags going up, but I think mine were busted so I proceeded to move on into my junior year. I was enrolled in a technical writing class because it was this very beneficial minor I was going to pursue.
I was even more unmotivated to be in that class, but thankfully my professor and I had a little meeting about a paper I was writing and we hit something in my life. He asked me why I was going into journalism and I just sat there with a blank look on my face…ummmm….because I like to talk. Ummmm, because I like television. It was horrible! He asked me if that's what I really wanted to do. It was as though I was looking at my life from a different angle because no, I didn't like journalism! I didn't like being assertive and asking questions about peoples' lives! I didn't like writing leads to stories! And I hated reading the newspaper!