It’s been nearly three months since I’ve been
back in school. At this point, I feel like I’m able to make a good comparison
between my life as a full-time journalist and my life as a full-time student.
There are positives and negatives of both lifestyles. One negative of my return
to the classroom is the voluntary demise of much of my social life. Every now
and then, though, I do get to sneak away from my studies (tonight was a 200-page
  book entitled “Governing the News” and an accompanying 2-page book report).
  Tonight, I attended a pre-Halloween party at my sister’s apartment complex. It
was a last minute decision to attend so I didn’t really have time to go costume
  shopping.  I got creative.  I’ve been rocking 90’s-inspired box
braids for the past two months so I decided on a costume that went with the
look: Justice from the movie “Poetic Justice.” What do you
think?






In case you are too young to remember Poetic Justice, here’s a
quick summary.



Poetic Justice is a 1993 drama/romance film starring Janet
  Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Regina King and Joe Torry. It was written and directed
  by John Singleton. The main character, Justice, writes beautiful poems which
  she recites throughout the movie. The poems are in fact by Maya Angelou.
  Angelou also appears in the movie as one of the three elderly sisters, May,
  June and April (called the "Calendar Sisters") whom the characters meet at a
roadside family reunion. The Last Poets make an appearance toward the end of the
film. Poetic Justice reached #1 in the box office its opening weekend, grossing
$11,728,455. It eventually grossed a total of $27,515,786. Jackson received a
nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, with the Billboard Hot
100 number one song, "Again".


Source: Wikipedia



I had a good time! I can’t wait for the next great escape, but
until then, it’s back to the books.

Prior to August, it had been three years since I last stepped foot on a college campus as a student.

I was 24 and fresh off my first “real” journalism job when I matriculated toward my master’s degree in 2008. 
 
Now, at 27, things were a bit different. 


I was fresh out of the journalism workforce again, but I was pursuing what would likely be my last degree and I was significantly older than the general population of undergraduate students on campus.

During orientation, I was in the bathroom touching up my makeup before I took the picture for my LSU ID card. 

Soon, the mother of a freshman student struck up a conversation with me.


We talked about the sweltering heat and the chaos on campus before she asked me what I was studying.

When I told her I was pursuing a Ph.D., her reply was, “I thought you looked a little old to be a freshman.”


My first thoughts to myself were “Did I put on too much makeup?”  I re-examined myself in the mirror and realized I hadn’t. 

Although I was still a pretty, young, thing, I admittedly didn’t  look like an 18-year-old before the freshman 15 or 30.

While I’m sure she didn’t mean anything malicious by her comment, it was still a rude awakening.

I was an 80’s baby in a sea of 90’s kids. 

I was part of a different group of people on campus. 
 
I was not there to party and partake in an abundance of campus activities.

I was a card carrying member of a group that substituted 40 hours a week of on-the-job work with 40 hours of schoolwork.

My group was less concerned with what cute outfit to wear to class and more concerned with completing assignments and hopefully minimizing the bags under our eyes from the stress of it all. 

I was a doctoral student.

Fun was supposed to be at the back of my vocabulary.

Membership in this group meant lengthy lectures,side reserach projects, assigned reading of hundreds of pages and seminars on publishing,data collection and professional development for academia.

It also meant I was expected to know stuff  (Pressured much?)

I was used to a demanding work schedule.

I just came from 2.5 years of working over 40 hours a week at a daily newspaper. 
 
During the course of a week, I conducted numerous in-person and phone interviews with sources; conducted research through computer-assisted reporting, blogged; shot photos and video; and attended several webinars and news coverage-related meetings. 

Still, there is certainly a big difference between journalism in practice and the academic side of mass communication. 

Yeah, sh*t just got real.

Fortunately, I’m up for the challenge!

I know. I know. I’m back again with another “I’m back” blog post.  I’ve been absent from my blog for a while now, but I promise (pinky swear) that was the last long hiatus I’ll take from the blog world. I blame my absence mainly on two reasons: My very demanding work schedule (I perfected the art of driving, eating and scheduling interviews); and more importantly, I didn’t really have a solid topic to write about. 

I’ve made some life changes over the last few months that have possibly eliminated those issues. I took the big leap in
September from working full time as a multimedia journalist at the Victoria Advocate to a full-time doctoral student in media and public affairs at Louisiana State University.  My schedule is still crazy busy, BUT I do have the occasional down time. Secondly,
my new journey has provided me with a topic to blog about—my life as a student…again.  I expect to discuss other topics as well, but we’ll see how things go. 
 
I hope you’ll follow along and interact with me as I relax and release from the daily grind of scholarly papers and philosophical readings. :)