Obama’s newest threats: Sanger speaks on media, unrest in Middle East

I’m a little over three weeks away from my last day of classes at Goucher College, and about five weeks from graduation. I’ve certainly reached the point where everything that’s happening here seems all too familiar. As for photography, at least, I’ve shot every angle on this campus that there is to shoot. 

There’s still an undeniable feeling of nostalgia, though, as these final weeks rush by. I remind myself not to get caught up in those ‘I’m so over it’ thoughts, and to not lose sight of the things I’ve loved about this place. 

One of those is the speakers that come to this campus. It’s particularly helpful as a journalist, given the frequent visits we have by professional reporters and editors from the world’s leading media outlets. It’s a nice compliment to what we’re taught in class and what we live through in our actual journalistic experiences. 

I asked David E. Sanger, the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, my usual cliché question: “What’s your advice for a young journalist?”

His answer has stuck with me, particularly in these weeks which have seemed to revolve around nothing but internships, jobs, and careers. 

“If you go into the industry with an understanding that you are not there as a newspaper reporter, but as a processor and interpreter of data – writing about it, explaining it in front of a camera, doing it on audio, talking about it on television – it’s all of these technologies converging. If you go into it like that, then it’s incredibly satisfying. And what’s the most satisfying part? You get up every morning and you don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s a pretty good thing. And the second thing is you get up every morning and you’re still excited about the work. I know more journalists who get up in the morning excited and thrilled to go into work than I do in almost any other field,” he said.