Today was the busiest day of the whole conference, but it was sure a fun one! Visiting the National Press Club was really cool, and so was hearing from President Donna Leinwand. My favorite part of the morning was the Panel on Political Journalism. All four of the guys (Vaughn Ververs, Chris Cilliza, Jim Brady and Jonathan Martin) were informative and intersting. I enjoyed their opinions on the “quickly changing” journalism industry, instead of the “quickly dying” journalism industry.
I have been to the Smithsonian Museums a few times before, but they are always interesting to tour. My favorite was the Air and Space Museum, I enjoy learning about space and the space shuttles and the different stages of flight. There was a point when we somehow “gained” another hour to visit the museums. Part of my group and I sat on the stairs of the Air and Space Museum and listened to all of Charles’ amazing stories. It was so nice to get off our feet and bond with our group!
Our group had more bonding time when we did a “Mountain Adventure” simulation. We had to decide which items were most important to bring with you if you were on your way to get help because a friend was injured and a storm is coming. It was an interesting simulation, but I think one of the smaller groups (they shall remain unnamed) had a bit too much enthusiasm for which items should be brought and which ones should not. Apparently, Tyler thinks that grandma’s biscuits will always be helpful when stuck on the side of a mountain.
When we split up into groups to see different speakers, I listened to Kathy Orton, sportswriter for the Washington Post. She was very interesting and she gave some good advice as to how to break into journalism and all the things she did to get where she is now. She also gave good tips about how to cover teams, get leads and break news.
After the different speeches we went to tour the monuments at night. I have seen all the monuments and memorials before, but seeing them at night was really cool. I’m interested in photography as well and I enjoyed taking different pictures during the twilight and night time of all the different monuments. I took so many different pictures of the Lincoln memorial, the Vietnam memorial and the Washington Monument in the distance with the capitol building behind it, with the sky a grayish purple in the background. Some pictures came out really well. My favorites:
By the end of the day, I think everyone’s theme song was Edwin Starr’s “25 Miles” [Lyrics: http://lyricwiki.org/Edwin_Starr:25_Miles] and everyone was thinking “feet don’t fail me now” because we had been walking around so much. It was really fun to see all the different places, again. I really like to take pictures of the monuments.
I just want to say that Group #2 – Charles’ group/ The Smith Family – is the best group here at the WJMC! Everyone in our group has bonded so well already that we refer to ourselves as “The Family”! Charles has so many funny stories we never get tired of hearing them! Tyler is always talking about South Carolina, so we are all going to go on a field trip down to South Carolina and Tyler is going to take us to Fatz to get some “Fatz burgers”, visit his grandma and taste her biscuits and then we’re all going to watch some Cowboy Pinball!! I can’t wait!
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