(From my journal for my writer’s craft class)
I spent all of today with my multimedia group from the Hamilton Spectator from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. We went to one of the members’ houses to spend the day finalizing our project ideas. It was such a wonderful day for all of us because for the first time we had the chance to get to know each other personally.
It started off with discussing our previous project idea which was to create a village on the computer using animation where each of us lived in our own special house and inside each house would be stories about ourselves expressed through the objects you would find. We changed that idea in favour of a project which focuses on the youth of Hamilton. We decided to interview some young people to find out about the many different lives and perspectives about the youth in Hamilton. To get us going we thought we would each try telling a story to the group about what it was in our lives that has shaped us to be who we are. Well, a lot of the stories we heard were heartbreaking and some of us were crying, but in each case, even after all the horrible things we’ve experienced (like the Chernobyl disaster, a mother who was a survivor of a Nazi death camp during the Holocaust, witness protection programs, abusive parents, adoption and abandonment) each of us is headed in the right direction we want to go in because of our own efforts to improve our lives.
It’s really an amazing group to work with and I’m very appreciative that I was chosen out of all the students who applied to work there. I’m now considering doing a co-op there in the morning next year since I will be in school still anyway. I’m also considering going to Westdale instead of Sir John A. MacDonald. I haven’t decided for sure yet, but I suppose I’ll have to do it pretty soon.
