One of my best friends, Emily, and I as bridesmaids for our friend’s wedding.

Well it’s that time of year again.

The suntans, or burns for some, are beginning to fade, pool and beach days are now “weekends only,” alarm clocks need to be set, books need to be ordered, “good-byes” are being said to family and friends, bags and cars are packed because it’s time to go back to school.

For me this process was a little bit different than most. I packed up in Philadelphia and hit the road for home. I unpacked the car, spent four days in Ohio, backtracked to Pittsburgh to be a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding, and then it was back to Ohio for four days. I repacked and headed back out to Chicago for Labor Day weekend.

While it was bittersweet leaving such a great experience behind at Fox 29 Philadelphia, I am really excited and looking forward to my final semester of the Journalism, MA program.

Every new semester brings new learning experiences, real-world and hands-on opportunities, busy schedules and plenty of excitement.

For my grad class, we have many returning from summer travels, vacations and internships outside of Chicago. Yes, the journos are back in town and I cannot wait to see everybody again and get this final semester started.

View of the Chicago skyline on my drive back. Don’t worry I was sitting in traffic when I took this picture.

Looking back, this past year has gone by fast, but when you’re in the thick of class and assignments it can seem at times like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Well let me tell you, there is and it’s shining brighter than ever because that’s where your future career lies, where everything you’ve worked on and poured your heart, soul and effort into gets put into action.

For me, I cannot wait to continue reporting on my thesis topic—it’s sports, it’s challenging, it’s investigative and I’m really looking forward to researching, writing, interviewing and reporting it.

I also have another internship lined up—this one is with an online college sports network called Campus Insiders. I’ll get to focus on college sports across every big name conference, which I love, and will also have the opportunity to not only grow in my research, reporting and writing ability, but also my on-camera delivery. CI combines, writing, research, social media, features, profiles, analytics, debate and broadcast.

Campus Insiders logo. Photo Credit: Google

I feel this will be a great follow-up to the foundation I built at Fox 29.  It will grow my skills in a multitude of ways, and for a network that is solely filled with sports content.

Standup from one of my studio records at Fox 29 Philadelphia.

While I cannot believe I’m heading into my final semester at Columbia, I am excited for what this new chapter brings and for sharing my love and passion with the new set of journos entering their first semester in the Journalism MA program.