Today I had the privilege to hear many speakers, and after looking at my notes at the end of the day I noticed a common way to easily categorize what I had jotted down: a to do list. So many of the little notes I wrote were one liners that described what journalists should be doing to be successful. Here is my list, in no particular order, as it stands tonight, but I feel more will be coming.

Learn to write
Build relationships
Don’t lie
Trust your instincts
Do what you love
Get to know smart people – they make you smart
Be flexible
Join college newspapers, radio stations, etc.
Be experienced
Don’t be afraid to volunteer – even if you don’t know what you’re doing
Think critically
Don’t be content – test your assumptions
Objectivity comes from discipline
Pursue truth
Humanize your stories
Journalism is all about people
Ask questions

All the items on this list come from people who know and love journalism. People who have worked extremely hard to achieve to such a high level. They do not lie – making a career in journalism is going to be hard work, day in and day out. Despite the workload, I believe that it will be completely worthwhile – not measured by if I become the next hot name in journalism, but if this love and interest leads me to a richer and fuller life. Not only can I learn the skill of writing, photographing, video editing and all the myriad of others there are, but life lessons such as striving for the truth, working to be ethical, and thinking critically about the world I inhabit. In my eyes, I can only see this work being abundantly helpful.

I am at the end of a long, fruitful day. A day that started (in my mind) last night at 11pm, when I boarded a flight from Phoenix to Atlanta. This flight marked the beginning of my adventures at the Washington Journalism and Media Conference 2009.  Boarding the flight, I was not free from lingering trepidation…. “Will I be smart enough?” “Will I ask pertinent questions?” Questions like these flitted about in my mind until the second hour of my five hour layover, when I was just too tired and instead started to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Ferris is a story of young impulses, a documentary of curious fashions, and a exploitation of good, clean, fun. I was not expecting anything other than a hearty laugh, but one line caught my attention. It is when Ferris states:

“The question isn’t ‘What are we going to do?’ the question is ‘What aren’t we going to do?'”

Without getting corny, this reminds me of the overall theme of WJMC 2009 – it is a conference to help future leaders in the journalism and media fields enrich their minds, and explore new options, a way to fulfill that “What aren’t we going to do?”