Info-Hell Completion

Whitney M.

March 12, 2009 - 3:45 PM

I did it. I survived Info-Hell!

It took me more than a year to register for the ominous J202 Information Gathering, which has been dubbed Info-Hell by students and faculty alike.

Here I am, finished with the course. Finals week is just starting, but I don't have any finals because my classes ended during week 10 a.k.a. Dead Week.

This means that I will be taking more than a two-week spring break!

In the beginning of the term, I was so scared that I would be buried in horrible work for ten weeks. I lost sleep and ground my teeth thinking about the stress associated with this course. However, I quickly learned that the class was manageable and actually, kind of fun.

In the end, I really enjoyed the 100-page research project. My topic was about commercial fishing subsidies, which was completely foreign to me at the beginning of the term, but I soon became an expert on the subject.

I researched government documents and institutional reports; I interviewed experts and non-experts, stakeholders and non-stakeholders; I kept up with mainstream and alternative news sources discussing commercial fishing subsidies and the global over fishing crisis, and I became a fan of folk music that elaborated on the hardships experienced by commercial fishermen who are subjected to increased regulation.

Now, I am fascinated with marine reserves, limited-entry systems, and fisher-assistance programs. The class allowed me to step out of my comfort-zone of information and into a new realm of awareness. This is the beauty of both higher education and journalism as a whole. As a journalist, I will be researching new topics, facts, studies, and perspectives for a living, learning all about different subjects as I go along. I am really excited to be in a field that allows me to increase my knowledge in such a fulfilling way for the rest of my career!

I also learned not to make mountains out of molehills when it comes to my studies. I don't know why I was so scared; I have always done well in college academics. But somehow, I psyched myself out for this course. Now I know that there is pretty much nothing I cannot handle when it comes to my studies! I am so proud of the work that I did, and I will never forget the way it felt to turn in my heavy, thick, 100-page report.