The best two weeks of my life… otherwise known as PCF11
It’s amazing how powerful music can be. One song can trigger a memory and place you exactly in that scene when that song was playing: what you were doing, what you were feeling, what you were wearing, etc. Like hearing “Don’t You Forget About Me” brings me back to my first SPEAK show at Antone’s, Vitamin C’s “Graduation (Friends Forever)” reminds me of duh, high school graduation, and KoRn’s “Blind” reminds of me watching my friends’ high school band cover that song at the park’s amphitheater. And of course, on the flip side to that is there are certain songs I avoid because it brings back unhappy memories I never want to remember again. Again, music is powerful.
One recent song I seem to be listening to over and over again is “Rivers and Roads” by The Head and the Heart.
I was one of the 30 journalism students from around the globe picked to study in St. Petersburg, FL for Poynter’s College Fellowship in May. For those that have seen me since I’ve been back know that this is ALL I’ve been talking about.
It was heaven for a journalism nerd like me.
Seriously, look at all that coffee.
We got hands-on training from some of the great minds of journalism and learned anything and everything about journalism.
I arrived at the fellowship two days after graduation, one week after classes were over, and two weeks after my last issue of Accent Newspaper went to press. Even though, I was exhausted and feeling burned out, I was still excited to embrace all I could learn about journalism.
Working with the other 21 fellows, our two leaders, Al and Sara, and the revolving door of Pulitzer-winning journalists and editors who led sessions or hung out to answer any questions we had gave me that motivational spark I needed again.
When the two weeks were over, I found myself ready to come back to Austin and put all the information they shared with us to use. I wanted to write again. I wanted to produce more videos. I wanted to go back to work, but that also meant saying goodbye to the fellows. And saying goodbye to them was definitely one of the hardest goodbyes I've ever had to do.
“A year from now, we’ll all be gone. All our friends will move away. And they’re going to better places but our friends will be gone away.”
They warned us on the first night that we would become close friends, leave with tears in our eyes, and while most of us doubted that and just shrugged it off, they were right. Being the sensitive girl that I am, I choked up when I said goodbye and gave everyone a hug before I left and the moment I walked out of the newsroom for the very last time, I lost it.
“Nothing is as it has been and I miss your face like hell. And I guess it's just as well, but I miss your face like hell.”
When you spend that much time with people - during deadlines, workshops, assignments, karaoke, newsroom dance parties – 24/7 for two weeks straight, you become somewhat of a family. A silly this-needs-be-a-reality-show family, but nevertheless, a family, especially with people who dedicate themselves into the same thing you love just as much as you do.
“Been talking about the way things change and my family lives in a different state.”
Now that we’re all dispersed all over the world working at jobs and internships, I still keep in contact with the fellows on a daily basis. I don’t know how the previous fellows did this without social media. Without Facebook and Twitter, my cell phone bill would be ridiculously high from going over my minutes.
“And if you don’t know what to make of this, then we will not relate.”
Just having “Poynter fellow” attached to my name has now opened many doors for me, even before the fellowship started. And it was the fellows that helped me sort through all the decisions so I could select the right one best for me. Before I came home, I thought I was going to be stuck in Austin struggling as a freelance writer while working at the bookstore forever. That’s not a bad thing, because let’s face it, Austin is amazing, but leaving everything behind for a steady journalism job is a scary thought. However, knowing I have 21 friends out there who will welcome me in open arms makes this idea seem a little less scary.
“Rivers and roads, rivers and roads, rivers ‘til I reach you.”
So the point of all this is that one of the fellows, Adam Kemp, made a video after we left Florida. He stayed behind because his flight was the next morning and during his alone time, he decided to make a video to crack us up like he always did. Instead, this turned into a tribute video of sorts.
I was in my hotel room in Alabama with another fellow Lisa Carter when I first saw it (we drove 20 hours to and from Florida together). I remember lying in bed with my laptop on my lap and the moment I saw the clips of the other fellows, I cried again. Yep, I’m a marshmallow.
But now this song “Rivers and Roads” will always remind me of my time at Poynter. The tone and lyrics of the song perfectly describe how I feel about the best two weeks of my life. The two weeks I spent with the 21 friends I will definitely carry with me for the rest of my life.
- Login to post comments
