REPORTER BLOG: What Is

By Amanda Fondriest
af194506@ohio.edu

We have to write four blogs for this course. Well, we don’t have to, but it is a necessary requirement for those overachievers aspiring for nothing short of an A. So, here I sit, trying to figure out what to write about. Do I do the cliché goodbye message, the lessons I have learned, the heart felt thank you to my instructors and fellow classmates? Or do I do what I do best--write what I am thinking until the underlying theme of what I feel on this, my very last Athens MidDay broadcast as a reporter comes out? I believe the latter is the far better choice.

Sometimes Procrastination Pays Off
If I had listened to mom and dad all these years when they told me to quit procrastinating, I would not have been able to write this blog. You can’t write what you feel until you experience it.

You can’t anticipate an emotion, a feeling, a state of mind. If I know one thing for certain, it’s that anticipation always leads to let downs. It doesn’t matter if it ends up better or worse than you had expected, it’s never what you expected.

What Is
Life isn’t about what was or what will be, it’s only about what is. This point has become blatantly obvious to me as I approach the end of it all, the end of my college career. I can no longer rest on who I was, basing my future plans on the dreams I had as a freshman.

As a freshman, I changed my major from magazine journalism to broadcast—a decision I will never regret. To say I love this work is an understatement, but to say that I still want to do this for a living is a lie.

I have no idea what’s ahead of me, so I’m keeping my options open. Applying for graduate schools, law schools, and jobs, I should be able to figure it out once I know what is—and what is not—an option. I have always been a very spontaneous decision maker.

Accepted into Ohio Northern University, I decided after enrolling in courses and attending my orientation that it simply wasn’t for me. So, I came to Ohio University. See, spontaneity.

I don’t know who I will be come this spring. I don’t even know who I will be tomorrow. But, I do know who I am. I am someone who needs choices and options, and I am planning for my impulsive decisions. So, I guess what I am trying to say is that my life’s mantra—hope for the best, plan for the worst—not only applies in the field of journalism but to all of life’s big decisions.