Confessions Part 1

I believe Boyz II Men said it best: It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.


Yesterday actually came a couple of weeks ago, when we presented our final projects in the very last #J198 class. (I've gotten so used to labeling the class with a hash tag that you should probably just go ahead and rename it that for next semester, Jeremy.) It was a great recap of the semester, showing all of our hard work to each other and to interested LU faculty, while live-tweeting the whole thing. It was also the last class of my Lehigh career. I'd say it went out with a bang.


Here I am blogging on May 9, well after when I should have gotten these done, but that's beside the point, right? After all, my pledge to consistently blog sort of went out the window weeks ago. You know what happened: Senior things, job things, life decisions, the whole deal. Point is: Thou shall be neglected no more, good old friend. Let's go out in style.


What's on tap for the end? How about some good old fashioned evaluations? That's right. I'm talking about ME, I'm talking about #J198 and I'm talking about #J198 COURSE MATERIALS, Y'ALL. Check it:


THREE-PART SERIES FINALE!


Okay, let's do this thing.


I'll start off by saying that this class, for me, was maybe the best one I've had the privilege of taking during four years at Lehigh. Hyperbole? Maybe. My enthusiasm can't be dampened, though. #J198 was a game changer. But enough about the class itself -- that's coming with my next post. This one should be all about me. "Goals and expectations vs. what I learned." Gotcha.


Going into the class, my goal was to become a better journalist. I sorta feel like I had a mastery -- or at the very least, a great understanding -- of traditional journalism in the scope that Lehigh presented it to me, and I had already toyed with multimedia and social media for the purposes of entertainment and curiosity, but rarely for telling a story. So that was my biggest goal prior to starting #J198: Use these new, strange tools around me, couple them with what's already in my arsenal, and spread some good old fashioned information around.


Did I do that? Yes. We all did. But again, I'm talking about me, so who cares about everyone else? (Just joshin' ... the class was full of straight up all-stars.) I learned how to take cool, little things I wouldn't have thought twice about before, like Gowalla, and use them to enhance an existing story. Want to see that in action? Check out our Web site, read up and then go take the walking tour. The full package, right?


How did I change personally? I learned how to not be a selfish pig, for starters. I love being creative, and I love doing things my way, so it was tough letting other people be privy to my creative process, and tough taking some of my hands off of editorial decisions. But working with a group was huge. It let me see how other people - I'm looking at you, Lauren and Opi - get creative and attack problems, and gave me inspiration for how to apply some of their choices to my own decisions. In the end, even if our group didn't always agree on what to do, we all learned from each other and delivered one hell of a final product, methinks.


I learned how to become more technically proficient, I learned how to look great on camera and ape Jack Nicholson, I learned how to ride my bike around the South Side and get college credit for it, and most of all, I learned how to appreciate the art of storytelling.


I'd say I learned a lot.


Coming up in Confessions, Part II, Andrew totally trashes #J198 the class. Just terrible.