Out of my comfort zone

This Summer has been a big challenge for me. For the first time in my life, I’ve experienced what it means to be a journalist. It’s not as easy as I imagined. The first lesson I learned while working as an intern at The Salinas Californian is that I need to get out of my comfort zone more often and do stories that I normally would try to avoid.

Every year cowpokes from across the country descend on Salinas for the annual California Rodeo. Now in its 96th year, the California Rodeo is one of the largest and most respected rodeos in the country.

As is the tradition with all interns at The Californian, I’m assigned to cover much of the four-day event and all preceding festivities. I’ve done several stories, and I probably will have several more to do. Many of these are feature stories. My problem is that I don’t think I’m good at writing features stories. I’m a little concerned because the rodeo is an important event in Salinas and it probably will determine my success as an intern. Worse still, I’ve never been to a rodeo in my life! Under normal circumstances, I probably would avoid rodeos. But I’ve got to get out of my comfort zone. This is my challenge.

-- Cindy Santos, University of Southern California, The Salinas Californian