tea breaks and bylines

30Jun07

You know it’s ground-breaking news when one of your editors (at a serious business paper, mind you) tells a senior correspondent to flip channels to tune in to the paris hilton-larry king interview on CNN. So there was the group of us, young and old, male and female gathered around the TV in the newsroom, eyes glued intently at the TV watching the plastic blonde doll act demure and all serious with Larry King. Larry was obviously bored with her inane comments. I know i was.

This might sound a little strange, but I think i really am beginning to enjoy this whole journalism thing- more so than I did a few weeks ago, although I hope this has nothing to do with our ridiculous routine of tea breaks and lunch breaks. Read: 11am reach work, 12pm go up for tea break which inevitably turns to lunch. 1-ish, back to serious work now. maybe 4 or 5ish, another tea break again. In our defense tea breaks have been very educational, for example we were discussing reverse take overs yesterday, single-source stories the day before, and ridiculous PR people and how to handle them before that. All in the name of enriching our journalistic experiences.

Ok, but seriously I think I am beginning to love this, not just like it- the chasing stories, questioning people (license to be nosey), reading analyst reports (my favourite morning activity), upsetting poor PR folks somewhere along the way (oops), the thrill of writing stories that cause share price movement.

Dare I say it. Sometimes the fleeting thought occurs to me- if only I could do this instead of going back to school. Stay in the newsroom environment instead of humdrum school with nonsense syllabuses and even more nonsense classmates. who obviously don’t read very often and/or can’t really write. I will miss this place when i’m gone.

On a separate note, I think i’m only beginning to understand what mothers must feel like when their children leave for some unknown adventure alone. This is a completely different situation- i am no mother. But i’ve a feeling my heart won’t rest as easily tomorrow, I’ll be checking my phone every hour or so wondering why the time is passing so slowly, wondering when the assuring txt msg will be coming in and getting all paranoid when it doesn’t.
I can’t wait till i’m back in your arms again tomorrow night.

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