Week 7: Clever Blog Post Title TBD

For all other weeks, writing my blog posts has been pretty straight forward. Now, one KBIA shift away from completing 4804, I think I've been rendered speechless. I apologize in advance for what promises to be an extremely cliche blog post.

It legitimately hasn't sunk in yet that my time in 4804 is coming to a close. All of my classmates have been like family. Every moment I got to spend with this group of people is what kept me going on all those mornings and afternoons when it seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong. It still feels like we'll be right back at it this weekend - I'm paranoid that I'm already behind on a team story that doesn't exist.

4804 taught me many things about the industry and reinforced a lot of notions I'd already had. A lot of the skills I've picked up in this class should be extremely marketable come time for the job search, but 4804 also colored my perspective on the industry with yet another darker shade.

I'd love to sit here and spout off things I've learned about journalism over the last seven weeks (and trust me, there are many), but in all honesty, I really learned more about myself in the process. Between the emotional toll of constantly fighting for approval and the sheer stress of trying to accomplish so many things, I've really had to evaluate myself not only as a journalist, but as a person. In a seven-week span, I'm sure I've managed to come off as an almost impossible mix of arrogant, self-defeating, broken spirited, incompetent and more. But just as I went about every week trying to identify and improve upon my shortcomings as a journalist, I hope my personality and character developed in much the same way.

A big thank you goes out to everyone I worked with this semester. I can unequivocally say that this summer was the most challenging experience of my academic/professional life, but I truly appreciate everyone's assistance.

Bring on 4806.