When you get an internship it’s easy to get a big head. It’s easy to think you are hot stuff and in a sense, you are, because every internship has a vetting process, and you become one of the few selected among the bunch. But as a college journalist, the line between being hot stuff and decent is thin. In my fourth day with SJI, I got a good reminder of just how low I am on the totem pole. I was not railed on by an editor or forced to tears, but I heard what I needed, specifically from two people.
“You don’t know what you don’t know.” And. “Unless you know the rules, you can’t break the rules.” The first came from a 2001 SJI alum, Candace Buckner and the second came from SJI co-Director, Greg Lee. Both quotes were small and could have been seemingly insignificant if I had my mind somewhere else, but both were two big humbling reminders. I’m not a great journalist with a wide-ranging perspective on things. I think I know that, but I am not always cognizant of that crucial fact. Which is why I relish statements like those from Candace and Greg. It’s better to know that you have a large mountain to scale than to delude yourself into thinking you only have a few more steps to take. -- Javier Cortez
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