Day 8 (Sunday, June 18)

Last night I hung out with all the cool people here at NAHJ. It feels good to be done with this hectic and long week. But at the same time, it feels sad. I will no longer be a student and will not be eligible to do cool stuff like this. I guess it's time to move on.

I hung out at the pool after last night's party. It was fun. I met some guys from Michigan who were in town celebrating their friend's wedding. Needless to say, I was out pretty late. So late that when I got home in the early morning I wrote yesterday's journal entry and packed. By that time it was almost time to go to the airport.

So I just watched tv and hung out. Then I headed to the airport where I caught my morning plane to New Jersey, then on to Chicago.

The flight went pretty quick even though I spent more than eight hours traveling. I slept for a good while at the airport before getting on the first plane. Then I slept the whole way to NJ. The next flight was a little shorter, but I still managed to catch some zzz's. The traveling allowed me to catch up on some sleep.

I traveled back to Chicago with Liliana (Columbia College), who lives in the area. We had a little bit of a problem at the airport when we got into Chicago. We'd gotten there OK, but our bags were nowhere to be found. After waiting for a long time we found out that they were on another flight and that we had to get them delivered to us.

I left the airport pretty mad. I didn't want to leave w/o my luggage. Tomorrow is my first day of the internship at The Associated Press and I had all of my clothes in that luggage and I wasn't sure what I would do. I went home and decided I couldn't leave tomorrow's clothing faith up to the delivering company. So, I went to a local department store and bought a set of clothes (no, not an outfit) to make sure I had something to wear tomorrow morning.

I came home and got ready for tomorrow. Today was all about traveling and finding something to wear. Not very exciting. What's exciting is that I flew into New Jersey and I was able to see the area I will be visiting in less than a month. It's crazy. I am just getting back from Florida and I am already planning my trip to New York/New Jersey. Well, that's how good I have it. It won't be strictly a pleasure trip, however. I have to go do some work at AP's headquarters.

Traveling to all kinds of places and being a member of The Associated Press is amazing. What's even more amazing is that this past weekend I met some other people who are amazing. My coworkers have so much talent. It was humbling to see that many people with so much stuff going for them. That's the great part.

I want to thank our mentors Michelle Johnson, Enrique Gonzales and Lita Beck. They did so much for us this week. We were sad that Michelle had to leave the convention early because she had to be with family during a tough moment in their lives. However, I know she would have loved to stay and help us out. Enrique was pretty cool. He's dedication to us showed. Lita's expertise helped out. Our product looks good because of her.

Thanks to all that made this a great week.

Yesterday - Main - Back to Chicago