The Huntsville Times, Weeks 1 & 2

After two weeks at The Times, I'm feeling really good about the experience I'm going to leave away with after my 12 weeks are up. So far I've gotten to cover an assortment of events, got to shoot some video, got a lot more comfortable Moveable Type (MT) aka al.com posting system. This internship is the first I've had in a while. I've worked or interned every summer I've been at Bama, but this is my first REAL one. I'm not taking away from the experience I got at The CW or WVUA-TV, but for me, this is the experience that will stick with me the most because this newsroom is more similar to the one I'll hopefully be working in by the time I graduate.

I'm not gonna front, it had been a while since I wrote a traditional news story before I got in the office, so I made some simple mistakes like misspelling words or forgetting an AP style rule. I make those types of mistakes when I'm nervous. But I felt embarrassed that I made some mistakes that I shouldn't have had a problem with. I almost cried because I thought about what an opportunity this internship is and what I'm expecting of myself as well as the expectations of my editor. My editor, Shelly, is a great guy and he's encouraged me to just keep writing and that I'm getting better, which was such a relief coming from him.

But on to what I covered these past two weeks....

So last Saturday, I went to Build-A-Bear in Parkway Place Mall to shoot an 8-year-old's birthday party. ( I volunteered to shoot some video of the party on my flip camera so I could get some video experience Lydia Haynes and her friends from Decatur were making bears for tornado victims. She was so sweet! Her mom was a trip to. She's a young-career-type mom, so she was a lot of fun to talk to because she's at that age where she has an established life and role in her household, but she's not too old to connect with the women she was in her 20's. She was funny and a great person to talk with.

I also got to shoot the Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment water balloon fight the same day! Niki Doyle, the social media editor asked if I wanted to go shoot it since she thought I did such a good job on the birthday party video. You know I couldn't say no. That's Lowe Mill place was awesome. I have to go back there. Check out the video here.

I got to cover The Soldier Show for Armed Forces Week. It was super cool because 50 new soldiers got sworn in at the beginning of the show. But was happened at the end of my first week wasn't so cool.

I found out the publisher of the paper was retiring effective Aug. 1. It was expected, but to me it was a shocker. Everyone said that it was his time to step down and let someone else take over the multimedia company that The Huntsville Times is evolving into. I just hope they find someone who can take his place.

I'll keep you posted on the adventures I'm bound to have. Until next time...

The Huntsville Times, Day 1

Hello! It's been a while since I've posted, so I'm definitely excited about getting into the swing of things again. This summer, I'm back home interning with The Huntsville Times! Reporting for The Times has been on my goal sheet since I was in high school. It's hard to believe I graduated 3 years ago.

Yesterday was my first day on the job. My editor wasted no time and gave me a story to work on right away about the heat. He told me he was going to hit the ground running, but I still was surprised to get an assignment. It the day went well, although I was nervous about how well I reported since I haven't been doing general assignment stories since - well, in a long time. I've been doing long feature pieces here and there since my sophomore year. I

haven't worked in a newsroom since the summer of my freshman year, so yeah, I have some adjusting to do.

Even though yesterday's story made me feel like an inexperienced cub reporter,

I know that this is a new experience that I have to embrace and have faith and believe that I will succeed in. My expectations are high and I'm determined not to let myself, or my editor down. By the way, I saw Antoine Dodson when I went to lunch! What an awesome way to kick off an internship. Run and tell that!