Covering City Hall

A couple weeks ago, my News Reporting class went to Toronto City Hall. We were to cover one of the issues on the table for the day. I never expected that the atmosphere would be so relaxed and informal, and it was very easy to get to talk to a councillor. Sometimes it seemed a little disorganized, but at the same time it was nice to feel like it was easy to be involved as a citizen.


Here's the story I covered and wrote:

Toronto’s hen lovers will be allowed to keep their chickens. For now.

A proposal by councillor Joe Mihevc, (Ward 21, St. Paul’s) backed by councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon (Ward 32, Beaches-East York) , was sent back Wednesday to be reviewed by Toronto’s municipal licensing and standards division in February 2012.

Until then, those who have hens in their yards may keep them without facing a fine.

“I’m very pleased that the process has started,” Mihevc said Wednesday in an interview after the council voted not to debate the issue right away.  “And this will kick off what I call ‘community conversations’ around backyard hens.”

Other North American cities such as New York, Vancouver, and Kingston, Ontario have already adopted new regulations allowing hens in homeowners’ backyards. Many, especially Mihevc, believe it’s time Toronto got on board, too.

            “I think there is a big urban agriculture movement going around…people are seeing a different relationship with the land, and a different relationship with the food that we eat, purchase, and plant,” Mihevc said.

However, some councillors, including councillor Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West) oppose the idea.

“Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side,” joked Mammoliti to reporters. “Now we’re going to have thousands of chickens crossing the road, and we’re going to have neighbors fighting against neighbors because they don’t want to hit the chickens.”

The puns didn’t end there.

“This chicken thing has got to go away, and if it doesn’t I’m going to cry fowl,” Mammoliti said with a grin.

Noise issues were also seen as a potential problem, but according to Mihevc, this is nothing to worry about.

“We’re not allowing roosters, it’s only hens,” he said. “They don’t make noise.”

Residents won’t be allowed to open farmers markets, either.  Hens will be for personal use only, with a maximum of three to four birds.

           “You can’t do a henhouse,“ Mihevic clarified.

Why I got in...I think

So as promised, I dug up the supplementary application answers that I wrote for my U of T application. As I've said before, since my grades weren't all that amazing, I'm pretty sure this is application is what helped me get in. I kept the questions and answers in separate files for some reason, so I haven't been able to match all the questions to the answers. I've linked the first two, but for the rest, I'll just post my answers since I couldn't find the questions to go with them. Here they are:

Why are you interested in this Program? (100 words or less)

I am interested in the Journalism program because writing is something that has always been close to my heart and is one of my best skills. My personality is such that I love to learn. I believe that in the field of journalism, there is no limit as to how much you can learn. There is an infinite amount of topics to investigate, learn, and write about. The University of Toronto Journalism program looks very appealing to me, and I believe it would help me acquire the education and skills I need in order to pursue a career in journalism.

What is your favourite subject and why? (100 words or less)

My favourite subject has always been English. I very much enjoy reading and learning about different types of literature, and I have especially had the pleasure of doing so in my final English course in secondary school. Also, I very much enjoy writing, a skill I have strengthened in my final English course. Although English is only my third language, it now feels as though it has always been my first.

My secondary school, Crawford Adventist Academy, has an extra curricular activity called the CAA News in which students participate in putting on either a live or pre-recorded news cast. Through participating in this activity, I was able to acquire many skills such as producing, reporting, anchoring, and even some editing. This type of activity requires creativity, organization, time management, promptness, and good communication skills, all of which I have acquired through this and other activities.

While working in the Crawford Adventist Academy Music Department as assistant in the head Music office, my responsibilities include filing and organizing documents, grading assignments, preparing PowerPoint Presentations for concerts and performances, assisting in other aspects of preparation for concerts and performances, as well as assisting in full inventory at the end of each year. This job requires essential skills such as dedication, organization, interpersonal communication skills, patience, and creativity.

While working at Isis Jewels as sales associate, my responsibilities were to either open or close the kiosk (sometimes both, depending on shift and day of the week), and sell jewellery. My responsibilities also included keeping the kiosk clean, neat, and organized. Some valuable skills I have acquired while working at Isis Jewels include promptness, and most of all interpersonal communication skills while interacting with customers.

I have been participating in my church choir at the Toronto Ukrainian Seventh-Day Adventist Church for approximately four years. Because music has always been one of the biggest parts of my life, I have always enjoyed singing in the choir. My responsibilities as soprano section leader include being present at every rehearsal, and making certain everyone is accurate and up-to-date with the musical pieces. Skills that I have acquired include promptness, creativity and musical accuracy, patience, and excellent interpersonal communication skills.

I have always been participating in various church and school related activities, such as various programs and concerts, and fund raisers. In participating and organizing these activities, I was able to gain valuable skills and life lessons. These include, but are not limited to support, dedication, kindness, patience, organization, and creativity.

I have held diverse leadership type positions in various activities such as soprano section leader for both church and school choirs, and producing and anchoring for a few news casts for the CAA News.

I love to travel, both for pleasure and mission trips. I love seeing new places, learning about different cultures, and meeting new people. As I have done before, I am planning to travel to Mexico this summer to do missionary work with a few other youth. However, this is only one example of something I like to do with my spare time. If I were to write about all of my leisure time pursuits, I would have exceeded the limit of 100 words by far.

Music has always been one of the biggest parts of my life. Through music, I am able to express myself in ways that are not possible through words or by any other means. This is why participating in choirs and solo singing is extremely important to me.

Next to music, writing has always been one of my best modes of expression, both artistically and philosophically. As previously mentioned, English is in fact my third language. However, I have proven to have a natural talent for writing, and English grammar has come easily and naturally for me.

Wow... now that I read those answers over again, I've realized they're not really that great. But I guess I feel that way because I would have come up with something a lot better now, since my writing has matured. But for that time, I think it did help...

Journalism, Shmurnalism

I guess I should explain why I named my blog "Journalist, Shmurnalist". I guess it was more subconcious when I actually did it, but I'm beginning to understand more now about why I named it that.

 I can't say exactly when I wanted to be a journalist, or when I realized that I wanted to be one. I remember that in grade 6, I wanted to start an elementary newspaper with my friends. It was my idea, and at first I was really motivated and determined, until I gave up because my friends weren't too excited about it. There's only so much a 12 year old can do to make a newspaper sound exciting to other 12 year olds. Not that I read any newspapers back then, but I thought making one would be fun.

When I was 13 and starting to think about what I wanted to do when I grew up, one of my friends got me thinking. I was in Ukraine that summer to visit my family and my friends and I were talking about career choices one evening. One of my friends said, "I want to become someone interesting...like a journalist!" That really got me thinking, because I'd never considered it as a career choice for me. After that, I began to look into it more.

In about grade 10, my English teacher began a highschool news broadcast what aired weekly. I got to be a reporter, producer, and writer. There was one incident, however, that I'll always remember. My teacher would usually supervise us, but one day, he couldn't make it for a reason I don't remember. So he trusted us enough to leave the entire show up to us. What a bad idea...

The show was scheduled to air live and I was in charge as producer. One of the stories I chose to put out for that show included some pretty hard to pronounce Asian names. I don't remember whether this story was a filler or whether we just put everything off for the last minute, but my anchor didn't have time to go over the story before we went on air. While trying to pronounce the names, she began laughing hysterically and uncontrollably, making the other anchor also laugh, as well as everyone else in the room. We tried really hard to keep our cool, but it didn't work a bit. My teacher was furious. He fired us all, after which he felt bad because it was only a volunteer thing and he realized we weren't trying to ruin the show on purpose. But needless to say, we never went live again, but pre-recorded all our shows.

When the time came to start enrolling in university, I considered different options. My first career choice was always to be a singer. I loved singing since I was a little girl, and I still do. But I realized as I got older that I should set my sights on something more attainable and realistic. Something I enjoy but would also give me a steady job and income. Although with journalism a steady job and income is not guaranteed, when you think about it, nothing really is guaranteed. But still, it's more of a realistic goal than a singing career.

The major reason behind my choice was also reflective of my faith. As a Christian, I wouldn't ever want to get sucked into the world filled with and focused on fame, money, possessions, and vanity. I want to do something that will somehow help make others' lives better. And with journalism, I saw myself doing that. I still love to sing, and I always will. I'll continue to pray about it and maybe one day, if it's God's will, I might record a Christian album on the side. But currently, I don't see myself making it my main career.

 My mom especially encouraged me to take journalism. She always said it was my thing and she could see me doing something like that. Although I wasn't 100% sure it was what I wanted to do, I figured it would be a good option for me because I enjoy the arts and writing. I applied to York for English, Ryerson for journalism, and U of T for journalism. To be honest, I really didn't expect to get into U of T bcause my grades weren't that great (except English), and I always saw U of T as this big, scary, hard-to-get-into place. But I think what saved me was the supplementary application form (which played a big part) where we had to talk about why we wanted to get into journalism. I think it might be on my other computer somewhere, so I might dig it up and post it here later. Anyway, when I found out that I got in, I literally cried, and so did my mom.

I became fascinated with university in my first year. I was in awe at everything. I wanted to know everything. I realized that the more I learn, the more I know, the more I realized how much I don't know. I remember walking into Robarts library for the first time to do some research and literally wishing I could insert a chip into my brain and install all the information that Robarts contained. I had a real thirst for learning.

When I began to take more journalism courses intstead of more general ones in second year, I began to see what this career is really about and the struggles that come with it. This year I'm beginning to see even more of that. I realized that it's got to be one of the most stressful jobs on earth. You're constantly trying to meet deadlines, and it's especially difficult at the begninning of the career. I feel like when I got a job, it would take a while for anyone to let me write about what I want to write about and I'd be doing a lot of unpleasant things in the beginning like covering crime (I'd HATE that) or writing obituaries, or even just getting coffee. Not that there's anything wrong with getting coffee. I just feel like it would take a long time to climb my way up that ladder and that my career would consume my life, which is definitely not what I want. And I don't think I can handle the stress, even if I do get to where I want in my journalism career. I understand that a certain amount of stress comes with every job, but not to the extent of some of the things that journalists have to see and experience sometimes, like covering a murder or having to talk to the family of someone who had died tragically. I know myself enough to know that I wouldn't be able to handle it. And I KNOW I'd never go into a war zone.

So I guess this whole long post leads me to say that I guess the reason I called this blog "Journalist, Shmurnalist" is because even though it seems like I've wanted to do this for so long and it seemed like the perfect career for me, I just don't know that it is anymore. I know I want to finish my degree because it would obviously be stupid to switch in the middle of my third year, and I don't really know what else I would take, but I don't really know what I'll do with this degree. I still enjoy writing, but I guess I am yet to figure out how I can be a journalist without being a reporter, or at least having to do all those stressful, time-consuming and low-income-getting things at the beginning of my career. All this thinking and stress about what I'm going to do with my life has actually led me to having very little motivation in school, which I hate to feel.

I guess the best I can do right now is keep praying and trying and working hard...I'll keep you posted.

The beginning...

Beginning is sometimes the hardest part. Take the gym, for example. At first, it's difficult to get into the habit. I remember when I started going to the gym, I couldn't understand why people are always saying that they feel so good afterward. To me, it was just exhausting. It was hard and I hated it. But I pushed myself because I knew I couldn't reap the benefits unless I put in the effort. I guess it's the same with blogging and journaling...at least for me. Starting this blog took a while. I didn't know what I'd write about, but then I realized that I don't have to have everything figured out right now. I just have to start, and then it will come to me. I'll probably write about how the journalism program is going; my ambitions, struggles, joys, and stresses. I'll share my work, too.

The thing is, though, that just starting is not enough. Consistency is key. Take the gym again as an example. When I started going to the gym again, I was pumped and motivated. But once that initial ambition runs out and if you don't push yourself, you're most likely to stop going again. I can't count how many times I've read previous journal entries of mine where I promised myself that I'd write in it everyday only to find that I'd stop writing two or three days later. It's ridiculous, really. I am yet to find a way to be consistent and motivated about this.
There are many benefits to write in a journal or blog. For one thing, it gives you a voice. You can say whatever's on your mind and not have to worry about how it sounds or whether you're following all the rules right. Another benefit that I find particularly good is the fact that when you write, you document your life and your memories. Details are difficult to remember long after the event occurred, but they are the best part! I can't count how many times I went back to my old journal entires and was like, "Hey! I remember that now!", or "Hey! That actually happened??" It's an amazing feeling to restore a good memory.
Another reason blogging and journaling is good is because I've noticed that when I would regularly write in my journal, I was a better writer (which is helpful because it eventually might lead to a better job). In fact, I came across this article today, outlining several reasons why blogging is beneficial: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/14/living/blogging-career/index.html?hpt=li_c1
This time, I won't make any promises about writing in my journal everyday, or about blogging regularly. I'll just do it.