I'm DONE!

Fifteen weeks ago, I embarked on what would become the most difficult, most taxing, most exciting, most helpful and most important semester of my life so far. When I started this semester, I knew it was going to bring about every single emotion in me and just 3 weeks into it...I remember thinking and probably saying "There is absolutely NO WAY I will get through this." 

I thought it was going to be impossible. 16 hours of interning, 10 hours of babysitting (minimum), 12 hours of school and 20+hours of writing a week, I couldn't believe or trust that it would be possible. But someway and somehow, I did it. 

My day today started out like any other....waking up around 7:45 stressed. The stress could essentially be about anything all semester. Today, it was that my alarm didn't go off--- thankfully, my super-trained body remembered what time I was supposed to wake up in spite of my phone breaking while I was asleep. I deposited checks on my way to the train, as I do every week, and made my way downtown to the verizon store to see what was wrong. Nothing apparently... until of course I need the alarm again...but whatever.

Then, I stopped by the bookstore to get a data CD before going to school. I did some last-minute edits of my 7 stories for one of my projects due today before burning them onto the CD. Then... I had to print out all of the articles I had published to submit to my other professor (Jerry...I've talked a LOT about him). As I went through I realized that I have had 10 articles published in different outlets from my beat reporting class. Finally, a sense of accomplishment came over me. While I didn't get paid for ANY of them...they were somehow good enough to be published and to see them all printed out in a stack was empowering...for once.

After 4 hours of presentations (I presented a multimedia audio slideshow I did that went along with a story about an Irish senior group in Brighton)--I was DONE with the beat reporting class:) My class friends and I then went to the Common where we played an awesome game of wiffle ball... I won. Yes...one person can win...it was me. Hahaha. 

Then we hung out in the campus bar eating and wasting time as we had another 3 hours before our night exam. Then... 8 o'clock finally arrived. I handed in my CD and all of my website content I created for the imaginary website we put together for our final project and suddenly...we were DONE. 

While it's not REALLY as exciting to be done now as it was in college because well, I still have to go to work in the morning and will continue working a lot throughout the summer before my summer school class, it is still just amazing to think that I got through this semester! I really can't believe it. And not to harp on this but... really... it was so hard. I can't describe what it did to me on a weekly basis. There was SO much to do and so much to think about and a CONSTANT pressure and stress looming over my head that I was behind. No matter how prepared and ahead of schedule I was with anything....I still felt like I was behind. But all in all... it was SO worth it. I never want to do it again...don't get me wrong...but it really was awesome.

I talked to people I never would have talked to, I learned things I never would have learned and I got to report on issues that really mattered to the Brighton community and the Boston community and that's a great feeling. While I love the stuff I do for lacrosse SO SO SO MUCH... I feel like it doesn't get as much respect as what I do on the news level. But there IS an audience..I know there is...but when I'm in journalism school surrounded by a bunch of people who don't care about or even KNOW about lacrosse..it's hard to get people to be interested in all that. Which I can appreciate because I am known to not care about a lot of things that really matter to other people too so...I guess we're even.

Tomorrow I get to go HOME for 4 days!!!!!! I'm SO EXCITED! I'm gonna eat food and work out in an awesome clean gym and run in a neighborhood that doesn't endanger my life, I'm gonna see an AWESOME lacrosse game and see Jordan WIN, I'm gonna do things like go to the cleaners, get a hair cut, get my pants fixed etc.... things that get lost in the shuffle when I'm up here. Most of all...I'm gonna see my ANIMALS!!! I can't wait:)

Also...to add another shameless plug for Jordan (not that he needs anymore plugs..seriously) but he was named IVY LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE YEAR AGAIINNNN!!!! Jordan is the FIRST EVER player to win this award two years in a row. He made HISTORY! I'm so proud of him. I can't wait to see the game this weekend... I know it's gonna be awesome and I am NOT going to be behind the camera again....because last week.. that was TERRIBLE. 

I will put up a post soon of pictures and more interesting things now that school is over!!!!