"Goodnight, baby, rock yourself to sleep" - "How Long," Eagles.
Of course, I joke, and the fact of the matter is the alternative, though not a reality, still scares me. I'm constantly reminded of a quote my speech communications professor said — in the first college class I ever took freshman year nonetheless. To paraphrase, he attacked the feeble notion that young people "don't know what tired is," indirectly quoting adults who lament adolescents and collegians who proclaim to be exhausted when they obviously have an insufficient amount of "life experience" compared to them. My professor went on to say that we, young people, are constantly learning, discovering, studying, interacting, and so forth that there's no wonder why many of us don't have regular sleep schedules. We're trying to do so much in one day that we exhaust ourselves regularly, for better or for worse.
These past four years have been the fastest yet. Grade school seemed to take its time, and while high school picked up the pace, college broke the accelerator. Nothing quite moved as fast as the last two years for me, but more specifically, this most recent term was a slight lull in terms of coursework. I'll be the first to admit my attention wasn't entirely focused on academics. It was a term spent looking to the future; I would've happily accepted slightly lower-than-normal grades if it meant I exited college with a job or potential opportunities for employment. What I wound up with was better than my best dream: a job, a real career ahead of me, Dean's List, and two diplomas. I'll take it.
The cat's been out of the bag for weeks, but I'll catch you up: on July 2nd, I'll begin working at Studstill Media in Peru, Illinois, a small but prominent company that proudly houses six radio stations. Servicing the surrounding "small" cities of Lasalle, Mendota, Princeton, and several others, I'll be working six days a week as an on-air personality for their many stations, doing weather reports and general airbreaks between songs. As I said in my original announcement, the radio industry's unofficial motto might as well be "earn your stripes," given it's extremely competitive nature, finite number of jobs, and often arduous process of "working one's way up" through promotions assistant, internships, or other entry-level positions.
With that being said, this is an incredible opportunity, the likes of which I understand the gravity and immense responsibility. To someone like me — who always kept radio within arm's reach but didn't fully embrace my college station, WONC, until my junior year of college — who isn't a broadcasting major, this is enormous. More than a testament to whatever hard work and persistence I myself have done, this is one of many indicators of how invaluable of a platform WONC was for me and so many others. My college station celebrated its 50th anniversary in May of this year with an all-day party. I was working as a station ambassador and got the call from Studstill that same afternoon.
My new studio apartment
I can say a lot of things won't change, but many things will. I'll be moving away from the community I've embraced and lived in for 22 years, something I always claimed I'd never do. But the immensity of this new job is too great to pass up. When it comes to the film reviews, I can't pretend those won't change either. For one, the access to cinemas and film where I'm headed isn't as rich as it is back home. I'll likely be ill-equipped to review as many "smaller" films as I once was, save for the occasional trip back home. I might be more inclined to return to seeking out films on VOD, for there's a great market I've somewhat recently neglected opposed to six or seven years ago. Time will tell, as I've been saying to everyone. I'll definitely keep writing, but going forward, I want to be doing more reading, personal writing, and organizing. I've long joked that if I were to die tomorrow, the internet has enough content with my byline to be enriched for a few years going forward.
Something I've long noticed when graduation nears, be it high school or college, I always know one or two people that have "countdowns." Whether physical markers of time or digitized in some way, I run into people who are so frequently counting down the days until they're done with school. I refused to do that for every graduation. For one, it so often seemed a bit juvenile to me, but more significantly, I feel that these days are very special. To count down the last month of college before you get your diploma is indirectly making the claim that these days aren't necessary and just barriers, so to speak, in the way of you getting what the experience is really about. I say this as someone who since I can remember has taken a week or two at a time, but rarely wastes the opportunities afforded by a full day.
Heading to Lasalle this Friday to live in my apartment and begin a new job next week, I can honestly say I've never been more hyperfocused on the present than I am in this moment. After four years of intensive education and grinding, I feel I've stepped into a truly unbelievable gift. Obviously this isn't the finish-line in any sense, but if this is the beginning of the next few decades, I'm unapologetic in not being able to hide my excitement.
Finally, this is as good of a time as any to say "thank you." A small part of me can't believe I diligently kept up with these "college reflection" blogs, or as my pal/frequent collaborator Josh Witt calls them, "I did this" blogs. They provided a great release in addition to comprehensive updates for my lovely readers and a window into my life beyond movies and star ratings. They'll likely take on a different form in the coming months, but will retain their pace in being interstitial breaks for me to close one chapter and open another. On to the next adventure.
My "college reflection" series of blogs will remain archived on this website for all to enjoy and reference.
KEY SONGS OF THE TERM (FIVE SONGS THAT WERE A PART OF MY DAILY PLAYLIST THIS TERM IN COLLEGE):
READ MY OTHER COLLEGE BLOGS:
Comments
Post a Comment