Darkschunt 
Monday, February 13, 2006
Failing and Learning.
Today was a sad day. :(
I decided to be brave and adventurous and set out by myself to a press conference. It was just me, my bag and a gigantic ancient tape recorder on the bus to the city. Should be pretty easy enough to find the place, I think, because the location of the conference was along one long huge main road.
Little did I know, I got off on the wrong stop before realizing the press conference site was actually miles away up that stupid huge long road!!! And there were no buses heading along the same way so I couldn't even hop on another bus to get me up there! I ended up walking as fast as I could while lugging that huge tape recorder on my shoulder and getting massive blisters on my feet because of my shoe straps and sweating and dying to death because of the incredibly hot sun. (Why oh why did it have to finally be a hot day on today of all days?) It was horrible. And I was late - so late! for the conference!
Well, anyhow I eventually arrived. The rest of the press was already there and the minister who was being interviewed (minister! Why didn't I pick some trivial non-governmental conference for my first press conference instead? Why didn't I chose something like 'Housewives who sell Organic Vegetables conference' instead?) and all the other PR executives for the minister as well. Everyone looked up at me as I entered behind the receptionist, lugging that horrible tape recorder and looking competely out of breath and disheveled. But they were all very nice and sweet (I think maybe because I must cut a pathetic sight, and maybe because I'm so obviously some young rookie intern) and even pushed me up with my tape recorder so I could get a good spot while recording the minister's speech. But I don't even want to think about whether I'd be up there with all the other reporters on camera (the big TV stations were there too, filming) and imagine if there was a scene on TV of me all disheveled and sweaty suddenly appearing amid all the well-dressed Brenda-Starr-like reporters around the minister. There I was sweating like a pig and EVERYONE else looked as if they were there to be interviewed, not to interview. I swear, they all looked so immaculately groomed and well-dressed, they should be actors or something instead. And in the midst of them was yours truly, looking like an abused, sweaty, probably wild-haired orphan who had just wandered in or something. OMG!
Even WORSE though was that my volume levels looked as if I was picking up NOTHING on my recorder! HORRORS! What if I went through all that and get NOTHING out of that conference? Why wasn't it recording? And I didn't dare to fiddle with anything because I had already disrupted the conference enough. What will my editor say when I return telling him I was actually late and then didn't even manage to get the interview? But he's really the sweetest person in the world and would understand. But nevertheless, I hated the thought of appearing so unprofessional and hopeless to my editor. SOB.
Well, anyway, the press conference was finally over. I followed the rest of the reporters down the lift (none of them said a word to me and I rather felt like I was entering a cage of tigers when I entered the elevator with them, they all seemed so unfriendly!) and then out the door where me in my horrorstruck and dazed state wandered up the street before realizing I should be wandering down instead where the bus stops were. So trudge, trudge, trudge back down the street in hot blazing sun with the recorder which seems a hundred times more heavier and the blisters which have just suddenly managed to make themselves a thousand times more noticable, caught a bus and then trudged back to the station.
As I said, my editor is the sweetest guy in the world and was very understanding about it all. "It's your first time," he reasoned, "And you were taking public transport. These things happen from time to time but at least you managed to get there and get the interview." But I wasn't even sure if I had picked up anything on the recorder.
Thank the Great God above, I had. I got the last five minutes of the press conference! So things were looking up. I scrambled to transfer the recording to PC and write a quick story and add a grab that I managed to pull out of those precious five minutes of recording before it was time to go home. Phew!
Well, all in all, it wasn't so bad. So I messed up pretty bad and made a fool of myself at the conference. But at least now I know something about what to do at a press conference and I have gotten some experience. And I managed to record something and gain a story out of it as well instead of just giving it up and going back to the station when I realize I was going to be waaay late for the conference. On the way back I was sadly thinking about how I'm always the type of person who inevitably messes up something every now and then, and how I wish I could be one of those calm, cool, collected people who never messed anything up, like how those reporters at the conference seem to be. But, hey, everyone messes up sometime in their life. Inevitably I'd make a fool of myself or fail at something every now and then. But what's important is that I can look back on it and laugh and also learn something from my failures. And now I'm determined to go to more conferences and be able to do a better job next time. And I will leave at least two hours ahead of time next time and never completely trust public transport timetables and maps. ;)
Today was a sad day. :(
I decided to be brave and adventurous and set out by myself to a press conference. It was just me, my bag and a gigantic ancient tape recorder on the bus to the city. Should be pretty easy enough to find the place, I think, because the location of the conference was along one long huge main road.
Little did I know, I got off on the wrong stop before realizing the press conference site was actually miles away up that stupid huge long road!!! And there were no buses heading along the same way so I couldn't even hop on another bus to get me up there! I ended up walking as fast as I could while lugging that huge tape recorder on my shoulder and getting massive blisters on my feet because of my shoe straps and sweating and dying to death because of the incredibly hot sun. (Why oh why did it have to finally be a hot day on today of all days?) It was horrible. And I was late - so late! for the conference!
Well, anyhow I eventually arrived. The rest of the press was already there and the minister who was being interviewed (minister! Why didn't I pick some trivial non-governmental conference for my first press conference instead? Why didn't I chose something like 'Housewives who sell Organic Vegetables conference' instead?) and all the other PR executives for the minister as well. Everyone looked up at me as I entered behind the receptionist, lugging that horrible tape recorder and looking competely out of breath and disheveled. But they were all very nice and sweet (I think maybe because I must cut a pathetic sight, and maybe because I'm so obviously some young rookie intern) and even pushed me up with my tape recorder so I could get a good spot while recording the minister's speech. But I don't even want to think about whether I'd be up there with all the other reporters on camera (the big TV stations were there too, filming) and imagine if there was a scene on TV of me all disheveled and sweaty suddenly appearing amid all the well-dressed Brenda-Starr-like reporters around the minister. There I was sweating like a pig and EVERYONE else looked as if they were there to be interviewed, not to interview. I swear, they all looked so immaculately groomed and well-dressed, they should be actors or something instead. And in the midst of them was yours truly, looking like an abused, sweaty, probably wild-haired orphan who had just wandered in or something. OMG!
Even WORSE though was that my volume levels looked as if I was picking up NOTHING on my recorder! HORRORS! What if I went through all that and get NOTHING out of that conference? Why wasn't it recording? And I didn't dare to fiddle with anything because I had already disrupted the conference enough. What will my editor say when I return telling him I was actually late and then didn't even manage to get the interview? But he's really the sweetest person in the world and would understand. But nevertheless, I hated the thought of appearing so unprofessional and hopeless to my editor. SOB.
Well, anyway, the press conference was finally over. I followed the rest of the reporters down the lift (none of them said a word to me and I rather felt like I was entering a cage of tigers when I entered the elevator with them, they all seemed so unfriendly!) and then out the door where me in my horrorstruck and dazed state wandered up the street before realizing I should be wandering down instead where the bus stops were. So trudge, trudge, trudge back down the street in hot blazing sun with the recorder which seems a hundred times more heavier and the blisters which have just suddenly managed to make themselves a thousand times more noticable, caught a bus and then trudged back to the station.
As I said, my editor is the sweetest guy in the world and was very understanding about it all. "It's your first time," he reasoned, "And you were taking public transport. These things happen from time to time but at least you managed to get there and get the interview." But I wasn't even sure if I had picked up anything on the recorder.
Thank the Great God above, I had. I got the last five minutes of the press conference! So things were looking up. I scrambled to transfer the recording to PC and write a quick story and add a grab that I managed to pull out of those precious five minutes of recording before it was time to go home. Phew!
Well, all in all, it wasn't so bad. So I messed up pretty bad and made a fool of myself at the conference. But at least now I know something about what to do at a press conference and I have gotten some experience. And I managed to record something and gain a story out of it as well instead of just giving it up and going back to the station when I realize I was going to be waaay late for the conference. On the way back I was sadly thinking about how I'm always the type of person who inevitably messes up something every now and then, and how I wish I could be one of those calm, cool, collected people who never messed anything up, like how those reporters at the conference seem to be. But, hey, everyone messes up sometime in their life. Inevitably I'd make a fool of myself or fail at something every now and then. But what's important is that I can look back on it and laugh and also learn something from my failures. And now I'm determined to go to more conferences and be able to do a better job next time. And I will leave at least two hours ahead of time next time and never completely trust public transport timetables and maps. ;)
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