Me vs Me: Reflection Post

My semester began a little rough. This was a hard time for me but it taught me a lot about myself as a student, a person in general and a future journalist.

I began this class with knowledge of audio. Because I thought I also knew a great deal about videography, this class made me realize I wasn’t as knowledgeable in this area as I thought. I learned critical tools such as the 5 step shot, which is key for any type of videography you are doing. I especially enjoyed learning and utilizing B-Roll in my “I Use It” Lab. I enjoy doing interviews and I love the idea of multiple camera angles/perspectives so not only is this something I enjoyed utilizing in my lab but this is something I will use in my real life.

I learned many different terms such as crowdsourcing, citizen journalism, data mining, etc. These were all concepts I knew but it was just interesting because I never knew there was a name for them.

Similarly, much of the semester we explored climate change. I of course believed that climate change exists and that it is a pressing issue, but I never took a deep dive into it. That may be because I wanted to try not to think about it, but this semester through Lab 5, Lab 6, the Simple Multimedia Story & our upcoming group project, I was able to take a better look at climate change. I talked to people I may have never spoken to about things I may have never spoken about if it weren’t for these assignments. I especially enjoyed the interview portions of the class because that is a passion of mine and I’m always looking for opportunities to utilize and perfect my craft.

It was difficult for me to rely on others. I’ve always been a one woman band and so, Labs like Lab 4, Lab 5, Lab 6, Simple Multimedia Story and even the group project we are currently working on, took me out of my comfort zone to have to rely on others for my grade. I had to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. It taught me how to work with others and it also taught me what types of people I do and don’t work well with.

One valuable thing I learned about myself in this course was that I was afraid of failure and I felt a need to be perfect. In the past, I haven’t allowed myself to get anything below a 4.0 and I pushed myself even when I was in spaces of my life that didn’t allow for this type of perfection. This semester I learned you don’t win them all, and every loss isn’t a failure but a lesson. I will take this lesson into my future.