Welcome to Thinking Out Loud, a blog that contains postings from The Tampa Tribune’s Editorial Board and from various Tribune Community Columnists. Unlike the unsigned editorials that represent the newspaper’s institutional voice, the blog postings offer personal perspectives on the issues, personalities and events of Tampa Bay.
We invite you to participate by posting your comments. We’ll do our best to respond.
Contributors:
Joe Guidry
Joe Guidry is the deputy editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune. He is a Tampa native and a graduate of the University of South Florida. He is married and has an adult son.
Jeff Stidham
Jeff Stidham grew up and lives in Bartow. He has been with the Tribune for nearly 22 years, the last 10 on the editorial board.
William Yelverton
William Yelverton is a Tribune editorial writer who has worked for the paper nearly 22 years. He lives in the Dade City area.
Jim Beamguard
Jim Beamguard is a Tribune editorial writer. He is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Davidson College. He and his family live in Brandon.
Jackie Papandrew:
Jackie Papandrew is a freelance writer and editor. Her syndicated humor column appears in publications in the United States, Canada and India. She lives in Largo with her husband and children. Visit her website at www.jackiepapandrew.com.
Camille Beredjick
Camille Beredjick is a senior at Chamberlain High School, an avid musician and a scribbler with a quirky sense of humor. In the fall, she will be attending Northwestern University to study journalism, political science and music, and she plans to pursue a career in journalism.
Jim Harnish
Jim Harnish is in his 17th year as Senior Pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. He and his wife, Marsha, have two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary and received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethune-Cookman University. He is the author of six books and numerous articles and studies. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren and cheering for the Florida Gators.
Angela Hunt
Angela Hunt is a novelist living in Pinellas County with her husband and two 220-pound mastiffs.
Sheryl Young
Sheryl Young was a Tampa Tribune Community Columnist in 2005-2006. A freelance writer since 1997, including the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Style Magazines, St. Pete Times and nationally in Better Nutrition, Today’s Christian Woman and more. She’s received a First Place Amy Foundation national "Roaring Lambs" Writing Award, and has lived in Tampa Bay with her family for over 20 years.
Christie Gold
Christie Gold teaches English and journalism at Freedom High School in Tampa where she advises Revolution, the school newspaper. She has been both the Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year and Florida Journalism Teacher of the Year. She lives on a small farm in Wesley Chapel where she trains as a competitive equestrian.
Natalie D. Preston
Natalie D. Preston is a karaoke singing, only-child pouting, Seminole Tomahawk waving, newlywed bride blushing, 50-state traveling, girlie girl who loves to shop, read, run and jump up and down on her soapbox.
Fernando Figueroa
Fernando Figueroa is a researcher, educator and lives in Riverview.
Gary Beemer
Interests include humor, politics, economics, community and world affairs, finance, people, religion, music, sports, current events, the arts and education.
Nicole Yunger Halpern
Nicole Yunger Halpern is an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where she studies everything she can get her nerdy little hands on. Desired major: life. No, not necessarily biology. Life.
Kris DiGiovanni
Kris DiGiovanni is a Tribune Community Columnist, Huffington Post contributor, Daily Kos diarist, and teacher, who recently moved from NW Hillsborough to another planet - a small beach community in Pinellas County. She also blogs at www.sandscript.wordpress.com
H. David Braswell Jr.
H. David Braswell Jr. is an Information Systems Professional. He is a native New Yorker and a lifelong NY Giants fan. He attended college in California (Cal State Northridge) and moved to Tampa in 1998.
Sean Marcus
Sean Marcus teaches creative writing, journalism and reading at Chamberlain High School. He has one son and is
expecting a daughter in early March. He can be reached at wuizabug@gmail.com
Ten weeks into college, I’ve had my first epiphany, my first identity crisis, the first horrifying reality check that will likely alter the course of my existence.
Or not. But I’ve been thinking.
Journalism is my major, but contrary to my earlier beliefs, it’s not my calling.
This was a rough realization for me to accept, especially at a school where virtually everyone boasts double majors, extra minors, honors concentrations, work-studies, internships, and various other titles deeming them masters of multitasking. It’s easy to feel lost when you’re surrounded by 8,000 peers who are all, in some way or another, better than you.
Yet somehow, I’m comforted by my dedication to my journalism major. I’m fairly certain this is what I want to do with my life and pretty passionate about doing it well. But was I born to be a journalist? No way.
Maybe I’m a decent writer, and maybe I know my way around Adobe InDesign, and maybe there’s a career out there suited for those skills. But I don’t believe for a moment that this is what I’m naturally suited for. To be perfectly honest, I don’t have an innately inquisitive personality like the writers I idolize. I can’t sniff out a good story from a mile away like my mentors can. And I thought I could write, but the brilliant work of my peers has shown me I’m nothing special. I thought I had a knack for this, but it’s really just something I’ve picked up. I have learned the trade, but I’m far from gifted.
This doesn’t mean I’m throwing in the towel. I still intend to become a journalist, but in a different direction from my original plans. However, I’m also still on a quest to find something I can study that will accurately reflect who I am.
In a sad attempt to find my calling, I’ve spent this week brainstorming potential double majors, minors, and concentrations to expand my course choices, my degree, and, well, my self-confidence. The other programs of study are impressive and plenty suit my interests, but something’s still not clicking.
Music minor? Mostly only available to music majors, and I’m nowhere near talented enough for that path. Linguistics minor? Too science-oriented. Double major in gender studies? Potentially, but with a high risk of biased emotional attachment to objective topics. Political science? I’d only be doing it for show.
It seems I don’t really have a divine gift – at least not one that can carry me through college. My calling is singing a cappella in an awkward register, stressing over the small stuff, editing my friends’ college essays until they avoid me, enjoying outdated poetry, finding sexist undertones in classic novels, buying presents, overusing puns, and envying my friends’ natural talents when I know I should be proud of them.
