ETHS BullETin

Above is my lovely visitor's badge from venturing onto the campus of my alma mater. It was surreal walking back onto campus, but I felt completely at home walking into the newsroom of The BullETin and hearing Mrs. Schaeffer welcome me with a loud exclaimation of "Jenna!", a hug, and then "You look so old!" I gladly took that as a compliment.

For the next half hour, I spoke, yes, spoke, to her high school journalism class about college journalism and what it's like being an editor-in-chief of a university newspaper. I definitely should have brought an outline, I'm very scared I said um one too many times and may have rambled, but the four in the front row at least seemed interested. And then the questions came...from one individual in particular. Andrea asked at least 8 questions and one or two came from other hands. I would have written a recommendation for that girl if I had a reason and credentials to. And then Jason, the editor-in-chief, asked a question, is it important to major in journalism? Apparently a professional journalist had come in the week before and said it wasn't. I got up on my soap box and began to list reasons why it was - networking, resources, education, and so on. When I was done, he said he was relieved, because that's what he was going for.

I began to explain the cycle of our newsroom and the bell rang. Jason stayed put, Andrea opened her lunch, and Aaron who had been quiet but attentive stayed as well. I was able to chat with each of them about different topics over their lunch period and left when the next bell rang. I was surprised how fast it went by, but I left feeling like I had just been to Disneyland. Maybe it was the fact that I realized I do know what I'm talking about or the fact that there were a few that stayed behind to talk or that Mrs. Schaefer said I looked older - whatever it was, I had fun! I may not be the best public speaker, but I enjoyed talking to those students more than writing articles. I've always thought about teaching, and I'm not planning on teaching anytime soon but today did put it back in the ranks for a career choice. And Jason definitely reminded me of why I am majoring in journalism. I want to know how things work and how best to communicate those to the public. Without my major, I wouldn't know half the things I talked about today - at least not as well as I do.

Here I am with my visitor's badge. It was the first time going back to ETHS in 3 years. I had dreaded even driving by that campus, not that I didn't like high school - I loved it - there was just something odd about it. Today, it felt right though, kind of like being at home.