Famous Last Words

Two days after school started I flippantly remarked to a friend of mine that Gutenberg would not get in the way of me posting here on my blog. “I mean,” I told her, “no matter how much schoolwork I have, I can always scrape a half-hour out of my day to blog, right?”

Right.

One of the things I have learned about Gutenberg since we started class two weeks ago is that it is a time-eating vortex. Every day, no matter how long it is, seems to have the unique property of being NOT LONG ENOUGH. Not long enough for classes, for homework, for socializing… certainly not long enough for the odds and ends of my life that I used to make time for. In fact, at times it feels that Gutenberg is systematically squeezing all possibility for free time out of my life. Perhaps this is a part of the curriculum they forgot to mention in orientation.

Suffice it to say, my time is packed tighter than I ever imagined possible. And yet, I somehow manage to continue living and breathing and showing up to class (relatively) on time. But it’s anyone’s guess how long that will last.

But, uh… there’s one other thing. Remember way back when I applied for 20Below, the teenage news team on our local newspaper? Of course you don’t. But I did, and about two and a half weeks ago I got a call from the features editor at The Register Guard asking me if I was still interested in being a part of the team.

And I said yes.

It’s ironic, really… with bated breath I ran out to the mailbox every afternoon all summer, waiting and trying not to wait for that letter that would tell me whether I had been accepted to the 20Below team. But by the time they actually got around to asking me, I had made such grand plans for this year that being part of the 20Below team no longer seemed like the most exciting thing that could happen to me.

That’s not to say I’m not excited that I was chosen; I am! I’m just worried that I won’t really be able to give the job as much time and care as it deserves. But I’ll do my best.

Here are the details: for those of you here in Eugene who get the Register Guard, look for the 20Below column in the new lifestyle section on Mondays. There are seven columnists, so I’ll have a column published every seven weeks. If all goes as planned, my first two columns will be on October 23rd and December 11th.

But! Fear not, oh people who do not live in Eugene or who do not get the Guard. For the first time ever, the folks at the paper have set up a blog for the 20Below staff members! So they will be posting our columns every week to the blog. I’ll provide a link to my columns when they are published.

There are actually some goodies up at the 20Below blog already; when we had our very first team meeting, they told us they were going to be creating photo slideshows of each of us for the website. So they stood us in front of this (really nice!) camera and gave us a remote and said “Have at it!”

Most of the kids, naturally, came up with really fun and interesting poses that made for fun and interesting slideshows. I, on the other hand, was having a case of the goose faces. But because I am willing to be THAT TRANSPARENT with you, internets, I will provide you a link to the bio and slideshow that the Guard put up about me. (P.S. I would love it if any of you wanted to comment on that post. It is so horribly empty! )

So… Gutenberg. 20Below. Blogging here and for 20Below. Coping with life.

Will it be hard? Yes.

Will I be exhausted? Yes.

But will I manage somehow? Of course.

Right?

Posted on Friday, October 6th, 2006 at 11:14 pm.
Belongs with: Happening Things, Gutenberg Things.
If you wish, follow the comments feed.
Comments are closed.