Weinreich: Gaining a better sense of direction
I’ve never been great at following directions.
For instance, according to Waze, the drive from my parents’ home in Buffehr Creek to the Vail Daily office should take no more than eight minutes. A straight shot on Highway 6, it’s inconceivable to imagine someone getting lost en route. Still, defying the odds, in the early days of my summer internship, I consistently overshot two exits, doubling the duration of my commute for the entire month of July.
This error was costly, in terms of both time and my gas budget. But in the main, I have found that when it comes to navigating through life, following my internal compass (as opposed to a GPS) can come with its advantages. Had I simply followed the path set before me, I never would have ended up reporting with the Vail Daily this summer.
In fact, I probably would have spent the time away from school flipping burgers.
See, finding a first job poses a challenge for any student, but perhaps especially so for those looking to enter the media field. Most major publications do not accept internship applications from underclassmen. Asking smaller newsrooms — wherein budgets and schedules are almost always strapped — to take a chance on a sophomore with zero professional experience felt like shouting in the void.
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Desperate for guidance, last fall I contacted a family friend who had long worked as a journalist.
My query was simple.
What can I do to get a job in a newsroom this summer?
His response was simple too.
Don’t.
The family friend advised me not to worry about landing a position in the field this summer — to do so at my age, he claimed, would be near impossible.
(As it would turn out, all it took was an over-eager email to the Vail Daily’s leadership, but that’s another story).
The family friend continued, assuring me that I had a lifetime of work ahead of me. In the meantime, he recommended that I spend my time on “something fun.” Take a road trip, he suggested, or get a job flipping burgers.
These ventures didn’t sound very fun to me at all. For one, I don’t eat meat and am far from the world’s most confident driver. But more importantly, I knew that I wanted to spend the summer pursuing my passions. It was newsroom or bust.
Don’t get me wrong. I understand the sentiment behind the advice: Gaining diverse life experiences inevitably enriches your perspective as a writer. But I can’t imagine that a summer spent behind a steering wheel or a diner counter could have yielded more diverse life experiences than my time reporting in and around Vail these past few months
I got the chance to throw myself into reporting on issues of climate, wildlife, building developments, and local crime. I attended a rally in response to Roe v. Wade being overturned, visited every pool in the area to discuss lifeguard shortages, learned about banned books, drug overdose, and the prevention of sudden cardiac arrest. I explored how local organizations were working to support displaced families in Ukraine. And, of course, I’ll never forget interviewing the governor of Colorado on my very first day at work. I’m not sure I could have handled much more life experience in one summer.
Moreover, at the Vail Daily I found that I very rarely had to listen to directions. I’m very grateful to the leadership at the Vail Daily for entrusting me with such independence. Their oversight of my work was always encouraging and often constructive, but never stifling.
I was given the authority to tell each story as I — the reporter — saw fit. In large part, I wrote my own headlines, found my own sources, and filed my own pieces — tasks that are often delegated in collegiate newsrooms. I both developed new skill sets and experienced a heightened sense of ownership over the work I had produced essentially from start to finish.
I still can’t cook a patty to a perfect medium rare, and I still haven’t seen the Grand Canyon. But I come away with greater confidence in myself as a reporter, writer and storyteller. My experience this summer, I’m certain, has pushed me further in the direction I want to go.
Tess Weinreich is a sophomore at Princeton, studying English and journalism. At school, she pursues her passion for reporting as a writer and editor for The Daily Princetonian. Beyond the newsroom, she is involved in Jewish life, works as a campus tour guide and can often be found over-caffeinating in Princeton’s local coffee shops.
