Well, I survived Dead Week (barely). I'm typing this after getting a poor four and a half hours of sleep followed by eight and a half hours of work. I is the tired.
I originally thought I'd have another bland week to write about journalism-wise.
Nope.
Thursday night rolls around and I'm working on homework. Then, I receive an email about a campus-wide racial awareness public forum that was just planned and was scheduled to take place the following morning. "Huh," I thought, "That'd be a good story to cover for journalism lab. Too bad I've met my quota and extra credit is near non-existent." Then, I receive a Slack group message from my professor for the lab to cover a racial awareness forum... for extra credit. My friend Jesse and I reply immediately, before the prof. could reply.
I had an idea. Jesse and I cover the event by attending and interviewing, and Jesse writes the article while I take photos for it. By the time we all got our thoughts out, we found out that we were all thinking the same thing.
Creepy...
Nonetheless, I had an extra credit assignment and a friend to do it with. Besides, I wanted to attend the forum anyway. So, why not busy my busiest day of Dead Week?
I finished what I set out to accomplish homework-wise and went to bed.
I woke up and watch the first Avengers: Endgame trailer twice before I started my crazy day: three classes, a shift at work, and a Christmas party, in addition to my new extra credit assignment.
You see, the issue of racial awareness has been growing exponentially over the semester, blew up on Sunday, and tried to be contained on Wednesday, spurring the creation of the forum.
So, I took photos while Jesse took notes. It was actually the first time I have taken photos of a public speaking event like the way I did. It was interesting, and I'm satisfied with the shots I got save for the terrible lighting. I think I was (mostly) comfortable with roaming the auditorium during the forum because I am pretty comfortable with the space.
The forum itself was, in my opinion, a good start to help raise awareness to cultural diversity on campus and should have happened a long time ago. Nonetheless, it happened now and hopefully it is the beginning of changes towards equality.
I'm thankful that I could be a part of erasing racial injustice at my home of Sterling College.