Day 1 (Sun., June 12)

Here we go again. Internships are becoming a part of me. As this Texas Journal -- Part III takes off, I feel good. Feel good about being among the top students in the nation. Students who have the same drive and determination as I. Students who have worked so hard to get where they are. Students who are talented.

Today after waking up late from last night's partying in Dallas, I headed to Fort Worth. I met 69 of the most talented people in the journalism schooling world. I was nervous heading to the convention reception as I know this is a very intense week in which I must show my talent and skills. Hopefully looking good for my future boss.

It didn't take long before I made new friends. Ten minutes into walking in my room, I had a few students from New Mexico State introducing themselves. I met Antonio "El Pipe" of Portland State University, who I will be rooming with for the week. We headed down to the reception and made some quick introductions with everyone that came into the elevator. We all laughed at something dumb I said and I felt great. These kids were quickly growing onto me. Even though I don't know them yet, I can see some of the qualities of their personalities already. Like that of Joseph Cortez (badass last name if I may add), who is pictured above wearing a cool Tejana as program director Nancy Tita (left) welcomes students to the convention.

After the introduction we all headed to the Reata Restaurant where we got treated to a nice reception dinner. Although I felt a little outnumbered as there are far tooooo many womyn as compared to males. I sat at a table with Rita of (San Marcos, Texas), Vanessa (Los Angeles), Mariana (Miami), Reyna (Los Angeles), Karla (Tijuana) as we had a good dinner and talked about our different internship experiences. The setting at the restaurant was beautiful. I don't remember if we were on the fourth or fifth floor as I got tired after walking up to the third floor (pictured above) in what seemed to be a great way to work up an appetite.

Of course being a young journalist and a student in a new town, we all headed to see the city first-hand. We walked around the city and bumped into a few bars. First, we headed into the Library [above, from left: Josh (Colorado), Gilda (El Paso), Aurora (Florida) and Juliana (Austin)]. It was kind of cool to see a bar named that way. You cannot go wrong with that. If your parents ask about what kind of stuff you did during the off time at the conference, you can always say you "went to the library". Now, how cool of an excuse is that? You just can't go wrong. To them, you seem as the perfect student that we all like to make them think we are.

During the bar-hoping experience, we bumped into Gloria from Houston. She was peer-pressured into coming with us to our next spot. We walked into Malones, which is a few steps from the hotel lobby. Aurora from Florida International University kept us entertained with her jukebox selections, which included a lot of Coldplay and Weezer. We played a little pool and some video games. Above you can see Gloria showing Josh that she can be a good race car driver. I don't think he agreed. Below you can see me busting my moves on the table as Gloria and I teamed up to stomp all over the Josh/Juliana team.

Overall, today was a good day. I got to meet a lot of people from all over the place. I had fun, but that fun is going to turn into hard work in the next couple of days. Stay tuned to see what the week turns out to be.

- Main - Tomorrow