Further explanations for "an old hurt"

So, based on the feedback I've been receiving for my post "Opening up an old hurt: the importance of learning from your mistakes," it appears I need to clarify some of the details of the story.

1. My Des News editor's comment was not directed at me, it was just a remark he made in our writer's meeting a couple weeks ago after he assigned deadlines to us for some of our stories. To quote the full quote: "Sports reporters know how to make deadlines. That's why Trent never misses one, because he was a sports reporter for so many years."

   After he said that, I immediately thought to myself, I was a sports reporter, and felt proud. It wasn't until later, the day I wrote "an old hurt," that I realized how terrible I really was at making deadlines in the beginning. (I realized this as I was searching the Web for URLs of my old sports stories to update my newsreel, and it struck me so deep I stopped in the middle of my Web searching and wrote that post.)

2. The editor who pulled me aside and told me I wasn't meeting expectations was a full-time adult staff member, not the professor who was teaching the Daily Universe class. A quick lesson on DU hierarchy: the professor teaching the DU class doubled as editor-in-chief of the paper. Under him were three full-time adult editors, one for digital, one for sports, and one for everything else. Below them were an army of older journalism students employed as editors, designers, and more. Note this hierarchy has been revised since the Daily Universe became simply the Universe.

Any more questions, feel free to ask me. And for the record, just in case this wasn't clear in "an old hurt," I bear no ill will towards the sports editor who pulled me aside and told me I could do better. I hope I'll be able to carry his lesson with me my whole life. I also hope none of my current or future editors will ever be shy about telling me how I can improve.

The internship debate

Just found out I was in the Universe Tuesday: "Paid vs. unpaid: The internship debate." It doesn't look like they used my Excel file with the list of BYU majors that require internships, but the article is there.

Opening up an old hurt: the importance of learning from your mistakes

"Sports reporters know how to make deadlines," my Deseret News editor commented last week.

At the time, I was proud. Today, as I attempt to track down where in the Web universe my old sports articles have ended up, I remembered how truly terrible I was at making deadlines those first two months. I have an excuse- I didn't own a laptop then and it took me that long to find out the HBLL lent laptops to students for free- but I bet my tendency to be late had something to do with the less-than-peachy relationship I first had with my Universe editor and the women's basketball SID (Sports Information Director). I can't believe it took me this long to figure that out, but there it is. And with it returns the unhappy memory of my editor taking me aside one day and telling me I wasn't meeting expectations. I knew I could be better at making deadlines, but up to that point none of my editors had ever complained. I thought they understood my laptop limitations (and I did get much better at making my deadline after I started bringing the HBLL's laptops to the court with me), but I had no idea they also thought my writing was lacking.

Why didn't you tell me? I want to ask. Why didn't you give me things to work on and tell me where I was failing? When I asked what I needed to do better, you said something about my personality maybe not being a good fit for reporting- all I heard was, everything you have done up to now is second-rate, and you will never be able to fix it.

My only consolation that day was a good friend who was there when I needed her, and the knowledge that if I had listened every time somebody told me, you can't do this, I would not be where I am today.

I have many weaknesses. Two in particular keep coming to mind as I sit here writing this: 1) I don't have a very thick skin. I hope to change that, bit by bit, in the coming years. 2) I am very easily distracted. Look at all the time I just wasted getting this little chip off my shoulder when I should have been trying to write an advance for Merrill Osmond's pioneer pageant coming up in July! (I've been putting it off because I'm lacking information I can only get in the interview scheduled for next week, but I can at least look over what I do have again and see if I can prepare any more for it.)

One last thought: I do learn from my mistakes. I'm excellent at it because I'm so well practiced.

And I know how to make deadlines.

Men's role in the Egyptian feminist movement

David Kirkpatrick describes the women's rights issues in Egypt in this January New York Times article. Mozn Hassan, the executive director of Nazra for Feminist Studies, a group which is protesting for women's rights, expressed her frustration that the participants in a past march had to be protected by men. Hassan may be right to worry that calling on men to protect them reinforces the strong patriarchy the group is trying to temper, but I don't think she should limit her resources by not allowing men to help the group. I think it's great that there's a group of men working with the women, and Hassan needs that support or her goal of stopping the abuse of women (traditionally by men in the Egyptian military) will be much more difficult, and longer in coming. Many of the men are husbands and fathers concerned for the welfare of their wives and daughters. I say, good for them! Egypt needs them!