Coming in, I at first thought I was the lonely Jersey boy- I didn’t know anyone and my parents seemed to be the last to leave, thus alienating me from the rest of the group. But as the day went on, and as I met the myriad of characters here at the Conference, I feel much more comfortable around everyone. Everyone seems to have a shared abandon to create connections with the other students.
I know I want to do something in communications, where I can use my imaginative nature to help others convey new and interesting ideas. I also have a passion for photography and I live to be creative, through both music (I play the drums and have for 6 years, and I love it more than anything) and through art. I figured that photojournalism would be a great way to do something like this. With photography, I can capture the beautiful things that help the world proceed into the future.
So, I came to the conference to discover whether or not journalism is right for me. I said something similar on stage today, during our first presentation, and I received laughter. But as other volunteers said the same thing after me, I think more people began to realize that this may have been true for themselves.
Something I noticed about my fellow youth correspondents is that many of them have a guided hunger, a determination to achieve a goal that they have established and will stop at nothing to accomplish. I am both fascinated and humbled by this trait. I hope once I know what I want to do that I can share this unfettered purposefulness.
One of the most important things I noticed today was the nature of the friendships I have made. Back home, I’m friends with some pretty stupid kids, but my class standing has me interact with the so-called “higher orders” of intelligence. I value my relationships with both of these groups for their own reasons. However, when I started making friends here, I noticed that I was making friends who had the best of both worlds. I was having a conversation about why I thought Bill Clinton was the greatest president of the 20th century, (despite my devotion to conservatism), with the same person with whom I was discussing cars and relating stories of all the crazy things we’ve done; and I can’t help but to wonder if this is what my relationships in college will be like – and if so, I can’t wait.