Life Lessons From The New Hampshire Primary
Easing back into real life after the New Hampshire Primary was hard for me.
-My day was less structured. Instead of morning meetings and nightly writing sessions, I had classes and homework and real food for lunch.
-My body was shot. The adrenaline high that existed in full affect in the Granite State slipped away. It just became pure exhaustion.
-My mind was full. Full of questions I could’ve asked and stories I could’ve written, but also full of pride for all that we had accomplished.
But then I was back in New York, just as soon as I had left.
My pink notebook, covered in campaign stickers, and filled with mostly illegible short-hand notes from events, now sits on my boring desk at home. My press-pass now hangs next to my most cherished sports trophies. These and the prized selfies I took with candidates are the physical things I have from the trip, but what’s more important to me are the things I’ll have for a lifetime.
- How to be confident no matter what the situation is: On the first day I almost felt sick at the thought of going up to random people and starting a conversation, but by day two I was walking through the press entrance of a Marco Rubio event like I owned the place.
- How to find the story and go with it : With so much information being thrown at us each day, at times it was overwhelming and seemed impossible to find the story worthy of publishing. Yet with the help of some fellow reporters, and learning little by little each day, it soon became easier to distinguish the stories with the just the right “umph”.
- How to take it all in: Whether I was at an event, or even just in the “newsroom,” I quickly learned that there was so much going on every second of every day and that there was no possible way to scribble every single detail down in my notebook. I did learn though, to put down my phone and absorb as much information as I could because you never knew when something could become news.
- How to work well with others: I can honestly say that there is no way our team of 21 journalists would have accomplished all that we did without the help of one another. Whether it was editing, going over an idea, or simply just making each other laugh during the long writing process, it meant everything to have a group of people going through the same experience and all learning from each other as we went.
5. How to appreciate what you have: This one is sappy, but so necessary. Throughout this trip I constantly found myself thinking about how lucky I was to go to such an amazing school, with teachers who truly care about us as people. They were the reason that this whole experience was possible and I can never thank them enough.
Like I said, adjusting back to school life is difficult because I know that this trip has forever changed the way I learn inside and outside of the classroom. It has sparked a true interest for me in political journalism, something I wasn’t quite sure about before the trip. But regardless of what I end up doing in life or how many New Hampshire Primaries I attend in the future (I’m hoping it’s several), I do know that I will always remember and cherish this incredible opportunity.
