Lessons fron John

I have never been interested in reading op-ed pieces before. I don’t know why, but I just never took the time to read what some people are saying about things. Then I took the Opinion writing class and I realized how fun writing an opinion piece can be. I am currently struggling a little bit, but hopefully in time I will be able to write as good as the guest speaker that came to the class to speak.

Before SF Gate columnist editor John Diaz came to my journalism class to discuss his experiences, I read some of his op-ed pieces and I have to say, he makes it look so easy. My favorite was the one called “Worst dog in the world? Move over, Marely.” In his piece, he wrote about his experiences with his dog while tying it to the movie “Marley & Me.” I thought it was a nice different piece compared to the other ones I read. His other ones were opinions on hard news events.

In fact, that is the type of op-ed writing I like to do because it makes it personal and people can relate to it.

Here are the top 5 things I learned from John:

1) Don’t write about personal consumer issues otherwise the company will give you something in compensation. And that is not exactly helping others and you’re just being selfish.

2) Write about something that can reach a wider audience and not just a certain type.

3) Even though its an opinion piece, you still need to research and do reporting.

4) Your writing should have a voice; the words should reflect your voice/feelings.

5) Just because a story has been done before, doesn’t mean you can’t take a different angle to it.

My Pets

When I was little, I had canaries. I always wanted a puppy or kitten, but my parents didn't think I could handle a puppy or kitten. I tried to prove them by "practicing" with my dog toy.

For awhile, my family and I didn't own canaries. Just two years ago, we got two guinea pigs. One was white named Snowball and the other is a black and white name Flower. But Snowball died suddenly a few weeks back.

My father always loved canaries, so it was not really a surprise when my father brought two canaries home and my little sister named them Bella and Edward (yup, after Twilight). I asked why he liked canaries so much and he told me its because they always brought good luck to the family. With times like these, I hope they do...

Check out my pets!

A Flower From Home

Roses are known as the romantic flowers. They also happen to be my favorite flowers. I especially like roses that have mixed colors blend in together. There is just something about these flowers that make me smile when I see them.

My sister took this picture on my 21st birthday. Whenever a big event is coming up in my family, my father always goes out to the garden and picks the flowers. He loves to garden: pick flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Our garden is filled with these things.

Our flowers are mostly roses of different color; some are the same and others are mixed. The smell of them are the same ones at the store, only these flowers are for free. It always makes me feel good whenever I see these roses on the kitchen counter.

Grad School

When I was in high school, I didn't want to go to grad school. I thought that once I get my undergraduate degree, I'll be done with school forever. But then the recession happened and I began to really think about my future. I spoke to many of my friends and only two or three are planning to go to grad school. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with not going, I mean grad school is not cheap. But trying to find a job under these circumstances is hard. So what do you do? I'm sure like everyone else, we are Googling "how to find a job in a recession?" or "how to have your resume stand out?" Yahoo! and MSNBC have articles on such things and even one where it talks about cities that employment is needed.

But going back to grad school....

I'm planning on graduating this year and I'm looking into grad school for next year. I was thinking about waiting a year, but I'm afraid I might get lazy and not want to go back to school. I've been in the school mode since kindergarden, might as well go for it for another year or two. So I've picked a few schools I'm interested in and it honestly feels like high school senior year over again. I need to do the applications, get transcripts, recommendations, and for some schools take the GRE (the SATs for grad school).

On top of that, I need to pass the classes in order to graduate, and at the same time be an editor for my school's newspaper.

So much to do, so little time...