And on that note…

So here I am, doing the last blog of Communications 311 and finishing up “count down” class no. 5.

With only four more Simpson classes to go, I am beginning to look ahead. The short-term future calls for finishing my course work and two writing portfolios in time to graduate in May 2009.

What about after that accomplishment? What have I learned and what will I do with a Journalism and Mass Communication degree from Simpson College?

I have long been a journal-er, documenting two pregnancies, a summer communal-living situation and other life-changing events. Every year on my birthday, I try to find a quiet place so I can look back over the year and ponder the future in my personal journal. But that’s personal writing.

In previous jobs, I wrote speeches for corporate leaders, press releases and newsletter articles and did final reviews of letters going to customers from my direct reports. In my current job, I’m a technical writer/editor. Often I have to put together an e-mail message that will go to anywhere from 25 to around 20,000 people in the matter of minutes. I also am writing more feature stories and managing scheduling for our homepage that those 20,000 people see first thing every morning. But that’s business writing.

I look at journalism as something distinctly different from personal writing and somewhat different from (although also somewhat similar to) business writing.

While I am capable of writing without my own personal voice, I think my writing is better when I can bring a personal aspect to it. From the first “review” I wrote about a basketball game in the fourth grade, through my personal journals, and to the pieces I put together for each of my parent’s funerals, writing was something I just did. When my sister read the life overview I did for our father’s funeral, she said to me, “You should be a writer.”

I think that was the first time I truly considered the possibility of writing professionally. It was also just before I started classes at Simpson to finish my bachelor’s degree and when I declared my major, it just felt “right.”

What I am considering now is how I can use the knowledge and skills I have learned through this degree program. I can certainly use it in my present job – but can I use it to a greater extent, perhaps in freelance writing?

I don’t think I want to face daily deadlines as a reporter for the Des Moines Register, although I’m sure that would be great experience. And sometimes, as in John Carlson’s article in Saturday’s Register titled “Professors at U of I paid well for doing nothing”, I cheer when a journalist “nails” a story – that’s when I ardently wish I could write so effectively and powerfully.

My dream career would be writing freelance articles about my passions: gardening, travel and faith. Because I am a woman of faith, I get a kick out of seeing and experiencing those instances, large and small, that make us wonder if things are just “coincidental” or how God is working in our lives.

For example, the very next day after we discussed them in class, I received an e-mail asking me to write cutlines for some photos for an article in our corporate magazine. A week before, I wouldn’t have fully known what a cutline was, let alone how it should be written!

So, I believe God has blessed me with being able to study journalism at Simpson. I’m not sure what he has in mind for me, personally or professionally, as a writer/journalist.

But I’m keeping my eyes - and my faith – open.

Thanks to each of my classmates for sharing your thoughts and writings with me – you have been fun and inspirational.

Thanks to you, Brian, for once again showing me how much I still have to learn!