Lovely Day/A Message

After the last two slightly downtrodden days (see last two entries), I decided to take today easy and have a day to myself in Brighton. I took this commitment to heart, as I set an alarm for an ungodly hour of the day – 9 a.m. But I woke up, slipped on my clothes and staked out the 25 bus to downtown Brighton, carrying only my wallet and my iPod set to Panda Bear.

Once you get used to a place, you start to forget just how cool your home can actually be. After so many trips into Brighton, the seaside city’s charms seemingly vanished, the town going from a gorgeous mystery to a place where I could get chips at 3 in the morning. Today I was reminded of Brighton’s greatness, one narrow street at a time.

I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. I walked around, sticking mostly to the streets I’ve become most familiar with. I ate a small lunch. I bought a Diet Coke from a grocery store. I went to a couple of music stores, but resisted buying anything (that can wait for another day). I walked around some more. I bought some cookies. And I caught the 25 bus back to Sussex, the top tier of the thing all to myself.

It was peaceful, roaming the compact alleyways concealing all sorts of shops and the wide-open streets parallel to the beachfront, just me. Brighton is a truly picture-esque city, ripped right out of a summer travel brochure. Even on a cloudy day like today, the sun peeked out of the grey sky on many occassions, adding a nice dash of light to a place that seems perpetually caught in summer even on a soupy Monday. I erased the shivers of the last few days by basking in Brighton, appreciating a truly lovely city all by myself.

I’m going to miss the place. I’m going to miss the colorful clusters of houses bunched together. I’m going to miss the neon-light covered pier jutting out over the ocean. I’m going to miss the CD stores, selling so many rare DJ sets I only wish I could own. I’m going to miss the tiny streets where oncoming traffic could potentially spill out onto the sidewalk. I’m going to miss the clubs, always playing The Smiths “This Charming Man” regardless of the theme for the night. I’m going to miss the “South Carolina is so gay” ads I’ve seen all over town, and their ability to send me into a laughing fit every single time I see them.

At least I have this week.

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One of my constant gripes popping up in this thing is my irrational “fear of the future.” It seems that every slightly-downtrodden entry that gets published on this lovely WordPress blog stems from me not knowing what to do with my life or reading an article on the Internet about how journalism is “dead,” a phenomenon more prevalent and annoying than even lolcats. A stranger reading this might picture me as a paranoid kid locked up in a basement somewhere, stocking up on canned food and vowing not to go outside in case mean-old Mr. Future is outside with his big Club of Responsibility.

All panic aside, I really don’t have that much to freak out about – sure, I have no idea what I want to do with specifically with my life outside of “writing,” but I’m not nearly in as horrible condition as I sometimes think I am. I’ve had two really good newspaper internships already, and a third, even better one lined up for the fall. I go to the top journalism school in the country and haven’t been thrown into Lake Michigan yet for a cringe-worthy GPA yet. I’ve won journalism awards for sports reporting, of all things (though I don’t know how much prestige they count for, but this is my celebration paragraph, damn it). Freaking Google sent me an e-mail telling me to apply for a job opening all because I wrote a blog post about how GChat was better than Facebook Chat. I mean…what the heck? I’m not the “top young journalist in the country,” but I’m not “reject on sight” by a longshot.

So, when I actually think about it, I shouldn’t freak out about that aspect of my future. But even then, one of the biggest questions I pose to myself way to often is…”was studying abroad a good choice, or should I have gotten an internship somewhere?”

Going to the previously-bragged-about “top journalism school in the country” brings with it not just dashed-hopes for a high GPA, but also an extremely competitive atmosphere. Most people recognize this, and try to operate outside of it, bragging about non-journalism endeavors and labelling the less shameful members of the school community “tools.” I do this. Thing is, we are all “tools” in some kind of way – we chose to go to a school devoted to journalism being exhibit A – and that competitive atmosphere we try to dodge just gets displayed in more subtle ways. This explains why rival campus publications at Northwestern take each other super seriously, when in fact they are just college publications filled with students who all ultimately just want to get through classes as easily as possible and have fun on the weekend. I’m guilty of taking the campus media landscape a bit too seriously, and I’m not alone.

Internships, though, are the peak of Mount Journalism. Everybody talks about them: where they are applying, where they landed an interview, where other people are going, where they would eventually like to go when they escape from the shitty local paper they intern in at now. The career counseling people extol the wonders of the internship – have horrid grades? But great experience? You’re all good! The more edgy ones – the young ones with crazier hair and more “hip” glasses – tell you not even to worry about classes, employers focus the most weight on internships. Thanks for telling me this before I made out the tuition check.

I’ve enjoyed my last two internships, and without them I would never have become a better reporter or, more importantly, discovered the greatness of Deadspin. I tried landing one for this summer, but nobody ever got back to me. Ouch. While watching all my friends land awesome internships and, using my faulty reasoning, I decided my journalism career was doomed. I looked into deep sea diving.

Three months across the Atlantic and absolutely no time spent in a newspaper office later, I have an answer to that question I posed before all those wordy paragraphs above.

Oh dear god, it was an amazing choice.

Internships are great. Internships are important, everyone should do one or two. And internships can be experiences in themselves.

But everyone should spend a quarter of their college lives in somewhere alien, preferably as far removed from journalism as possible (I’m looking at you, China). And those who didn’t do it in college – they should find some time too.

Studying abroad for the summer didn’t change my life. I’m still the same old person, I just own a few British t-shirts now. But I didn’t need an ephiany – I just needed time away and a new perspective. And that’s what England has given me. I’ve seen parts of the world once only viewable through the Travel Channel, and actually experienced cultures different from my own. I’m not new, but I’m different – in a good way, I think.

I urge everyone to find some time, whether it be during there college career or after they recieve that $40,000 diploma, to just get out. I’ve seen a lot of people mulling over whether they should apply for a study abroad program. Some of them take the leap. A lot of them don’t. Don’t even think about it – if you have even the slightest desire to get away from life as you know it, do it. Fill out the paperwork, take the required classes, get the necessary shots so you don’t develop a third arm after drinking the water. Do it, don’t even think about it. Rob banks if necessary.

You don’t even have to miss any of the school year to explore the world – study over the summer if the thought of no Wildcat football and Free Chipotle Day makes you tear up. You’ll get to rack up credits and experience amazing weather. England’s (usually) perfect summer weather, not cold but also not skin-melting hot. Italy and Greece boast warmer climates and tons of history. A friend of mine just got back from Spain, and spent an hour telling me how incredible and incredibly warm Madrid was. Did I mention you get credit for this?

Going somewhere foreign, even for three months, can seem scary and also quite detrimental to your career (especially if you choose Paris over The Plain Dealer), but don’t look at it that way. Internships are important and full of valuable learning experiences, yes, but remember that as a reporter you aren’t covering the inner workings of an office building. You are covering the world. And the more you see of it and the more you understand the people inhabiting every corner of it, the better a jouranlist you’ll become. A reporter writes about what they see and hear, and you aren’t going to witness anything interesting if you are cooped up behind a desk everyday.

The most valuable lesson I’ve learned from this experience is to not be afraid about following any ridiculous idea that pops into your head. Studying abroad at Sussex was a really fast response to my situation at the start of the year. And I’m so glad I followed that inner-panging to get out. Don’t think, just do. OK, think a smidgen, but only about how to make these thoughts reality, not whether you should do them or not. I know people who have lived on cruise ships and gone to China knowing little of the language and hiked the freaking Appalachian Trail. Follow these examples, don’t be detered by anything. Even folks who chose not to do anything of this nature during college – contrary to popular belief, life doesn’t end after college. You can still do the crazy things you want, so all those ideas you shelved in favor of more classes and internships can still come to fruition. Besides, your first job is going to suck anyway, might as well have good memories of somewhere else in the world while your slaving through it.

Go somewhere foreign to you – for three weeks, for three months, for three years. Today, while wandering around aimlessly through the streets of Brighotn, I realized how truly ridiculous and amazing my situation is – I am living in England! And I’m enjoying life! Don’t worry about the small details between you and your ridiculous dreams.

And pray that Google still has that job open a year from now, I’m going to need it.

(If you actually made it to the end of that long and preachy entry, you will now be awarded with CUTE ANIMAL VIDEOS.)