Monday, March 05, 2007

Where's the bright spot?

Whoever said those State & Local Government and Transnational Concerns courses in undergrad three years ago were pointless, lied.

I almost feel badly about the days I skipped or dragged myself in late to the 9:10 a.m. class. I’m not a morning person; ask my editor.

But guess what? Now that I cover local government, I’m not (that) clueless. Let this be a lesson to college students everywhere.

Maybe quadratic equations do fit into the grand scheme of things... Or not.

It’s a beat I enjoy most of the time because I’ve made my contacts and I’m comfortable staying on top of the game, but you have to give yourself challenges; new and different things, like features you want to do; otherwise you’ll get mired in commission decisions and land use designations.

Over past few weeks, I realized I got used to a routine covering the city and, while I’m sure you’ve figured out by now it’s exciting stuff (!), I needed to find stories I wanted to do enough to pitch and run with them. I love doing features and I write the hell out of those stories – if I do say so myself.

It took a little bit of adjustment in the schedule, a little bit of extra stress, but working on the two stories I want to this week made me inordinately happy.

Happy enough, almost, to make it into work early.

Photo "Student Learning Advanced Math" by Peter M. Fisher courtesy procorbis.com

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