Busy

The busiest two weeks of my professional life. Non-professionally is a subject for another blog.

Interviewing Fred Penner, elections night at the CBC and a multitude of time-sensitive assignments equals several all-nighters.


I'm tired.

The interview

The interview that will honestly be one of scariest things I think I've ever had to do and of my own choosing. I'm not someone who has ever really had to deal with anxiety, except for a bout the night before.

A decision I made a couple years ago to follow through on things, to push myself, it’s my goal.

A personality profile was my assignment for journalism class. The struggle to find someone worth profiling hung over my head for a while until it just popped I to my head.

A random phone call to a friend was what led to my pitch.

Fred was at an autograph table when I got to the Pyramid cabaret. Donning child-like smile, ear to ear, I approached him.

“Hey, I’m Kris Sorensen. I’m in creative communications at Red River, I’d like to do a personality profile on you.” Walking away shakily excited with a yes.

Monday was the big interview with Fred Penner, my childhood idol.

For those of you that don't know him, this is his website.

Running to my car after digital publishing, racing to Stella’s in the village for our lunch date, my anxiety still insanely high. Until five minutes before the interview. Calmness filled my body, back to basics, my usual sense of detachment from worry.

That man is one of the most modest I’ve ever met. Well aware of the power he has to this day, he wields it with outmost discern. Laughing and crying to the stories and experiences he shared with me, my two-lunch felt like a coffee break. It was over as quickly as it started. The then anxiety was now a high. A high I’m still experiencing four days later.

What is grit?

Being out of school for so long, it has been a challenge coming back. Multiple times I have thought, “What have I gotten myself into?” A bad dream about a typo in my first published article, it sounds ridiculous, to not knowing how I’m going to stay ahead of all the assignments that are only going to increase in volume. But I know I can do it.

Last night I watched a TED Talk with Angela Lee Duckworth, with a Ph.D. in psychology with an interesting background. With research to back her up she proposes that it’s not IQ, nor social ability, nor financial means, that will ensure long term goals. She says it’s grit, the melding of passion and perseverance that will see you through.

This week’s blog started out as something completely different. Writing in an obnoxious pub would provide a challenge in the past. One of my biggest weaknesses perhaps strengths is my short attention span. Which has been mostly ignored since I’ve started school. Two waitresses in this pub are CreComm grads, one from Red River College, the other from a program near Toronto. I have no judgment in what they chose, but it almost feels like a waste having met so many rapidly successfully people in the past month. It actually gives me hope that there’ll be less competition after school.

What is Grit? Grit, is why I’m here, the tedium that was my work life for far too long.  Striving for something to fill my life with more than a simple job that pays well, something that I can be excited about for a long time, something I can proud of, something exciting.

Grit is why I chose a prominent Winnipegger to interview for my personality profile, why I’ve written for every edition of our school newspaper, why I’m immersing myself in the whole experience.

Agree? Disagree? What is Grit to you? Let me know.

TED conference

Breaking Coffee

I'm going to take a break from the story last week.

Except that it's what got my current life started for me. My love of travel anyway. Every time I get the chance I get out of town nowadays, at least until I started school in September.

This year has been a whirlwind of a year, I lost a few instrumental people in my life. I'm sitting here done school for the week - not that it ever stops - reminiscing over the past year.
 
The exciting of landing in a new place, not knowing what bus to take. A pilgrimage in ways, the same place an old friend traveled for his final excursion.  Having lost my T-Mobile sim card, I got off at the first T-Mobile store I saw. Which happened to be in Harlem. Never had I felt so out of place... I loved it!

A week after Nelson Mandela had died. Wondering around on a mission I passed The Apollo, a rudimentary shrine in front. The mission was soul food. Sylvia's wasn't too far, I'm still so far out of place. I learned that soul food is not really my favourite.

Within the hour I was on my first subway. No idea how it worked just got on the first train I saw. Earlier deciding to concentrate on Manhattan Island this trip, I booked a hostile near the northwest corner of Central Park. I decided to touch base with them, dropping off my gear. My first mission in every town I take over is to find an amazing coffee, which turned out harder than I thought. The area I was staying at was very laid back, lacking the vibrance I not only expected, craved.

After roaming, finding a cafe dedicated to bacon, many shops, the best cup I found tasted like what I imagine brewing used coffee with jet fuel, through a sock that had been worn for a week. Less than appealing.

To be continued...