For high school upperclassmen, there are few questions more annoying than “What do you want to study?” and “Where do you want to go to college?” It seems like every time we are stuck in small talk, that is all that we are asked. Can’t we just stick to the typical, “How’s the weather up there?”
However, there are a few students who know what they want to do, who seem to be the chosen ones who have figured it out. For the students who decided on journalism as a career, the Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference was a life-changing opportunity that can never be recreated.
Upon arrival to Washington D.C., 51 scholars (one from each state as well as Washington D.C.) were corralled into a conference room in a hotel. Here, the scholars were left to mingle until the early group came back from the Native American History Museum. It was here that I had my first taste of what I got myself into. Once everyone arrived to the hotel, we passed around a foam microphone while offering up a fun fact about ourselves and our home states. Then we met our roommates; my roommate was Jake Smith from Michigan.
Though he had a ordinary name, Smith was an extraordinary guy. We hit it off instantly as I heard him say his interesting fact was that he runs 10 miles a day. A fact that was appalling to most was actually appealing to me, since I’m in the same boat. Not only were we both runners, but we are on opposite sides of the best rivalry in sports: Red Wings and Blackhawks. And on top of that, we are both huge science geeks and love writing (which was obvious given the situation we were in). Every night, we stayed up well past the 11 p.m. lights-out time to rack each other’s brains. We shared everything from typical cross country workout calendars to class schedules to our future hopes and dreams.
Our first night was spent at the Newseum, our home away from home for the next week. We all got very comfortable with one another when we were filmed sharing our favorite of the five freedoms listed in the first amendment: speech, religion, press, assembly and petition. Immediately following that, we had a trivia game show where the red team (my team) pulled way ahead, lost our big lead then retook it, only to lose in the end.
On the first night, we established something we kept doing every night: holding group discussions in the courtyard of the hotel. Often times the conversations under the starless D.C. sky were more exciting and more involved than the sessions.
The sessions, where we listened to one or more speakers address us on different aspects of journalism, took place in the meeting rooms of the Newseum. We heard from some of the most important names in journalism including Ron Nessen, former press secretary for President Gerald Ford. Speech topics ranged from religion to politics to technology as well as the inspiring stories of past Free Spirits who are now in the professional field.
One of the most influential sessions was on the future of the newsroom; it was a very exciting session given that many of us felt like we were being discouraged from pursuing journalism because it is “dying.” Computers and smartphones are making journalism more mobile and versatile. One person can shoot video, take pictures and write copy from their palm, something that in the past took a whole team to do. That just increases the possibilities of how far a story can actually go.
When night fell over D.C., it was time for the group to have fun. Depending on the night, we engaged in several different activities, including eating pizza and dancing on a river cruise, watching the World Cup in a trendy D.C. restaurant and taking pictures in front of the different monuments. The Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. monuments are breathtaking at night.
The biggest surprise of the trip for me came at 4 a.m. on the last day. Smith and I decided we would stay up all night until we were set to leave in the morning. Every Free Spirit was given a card with a departure time. My card was at 4:30, his at 5. We both eventually crashed and, had it not been for my emergency alarm on my phone, I wouldn’t have gotten up. I had just gotten out of the shower when an urgent knock came on our door. My flight time had changed so I had to leave early, without saying the proper goodbye to most of my new friends. Though my exit was rushed, I have been able to keep in touch through twitter, GroupMe and Facebook.
