Chapter 3, page 1098

My sister, Emily, graduated from Boston University's Center for Digital Imaging Arts this weekend. Besides certified photographers (like Em), CDIA has produced a slew of talented graphic and web designers, audio producers, 3-D animators, and digital filmmakers.

While all of them have proven quite capable of creating product, commencement speaker Steve Maler of the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company challenged them to collaborate in order to reach a higher goal: tell a complete story.

Three years has passed since Newhouse Dean David Rubin charged me and my colleagues to do the same. Since then, I've filed more than 1200 reports. I've edited a few policy briefs and co-created three brochures... but I still haven't told a story the way I want to. In fact, I'm not sure what that way is. Not only am I still searching out the right story to tell--I'm still searching for my voice.

That's the one challenge I was not prepared to face.

They told me it's tough to crack in. They told me the money would suck. They told me to combat competition with persistence. But no one told me I would devote some of my work shifts to proofing meeting agendas, FedExing packages, and covering for the receptionist along the way to finding my story and my way of telling it.

I am not discouraged. When friends complain about the menial tasks they perform at the job they thought they wanted, I remind them (and, in turn, myself) that "all of this will make for a great Chapter 3 in your inspiring memoir someday."

My one piece of advice for Communicators of the Class of 2008 is this: Chapter 3 can be lengthy.

You can choose to see that as a daunting challenge or an exhilarating journey. The choice is yours. I've felt both at different times. But whichever way you prepare for it... prepare for it. Appreciate that your experience as a key grip, a copy editor, or photo assistant will not only influence today's product but also your own method of storytelling down the road. And, to quote a magnet Mom keeps on the fridge: "Find Joy in the Journey."

I'm writing this as much to myself as I am to you...

J


To read Emily's take on her journey, I encourage you to click:
http://www.frozenoranges.com/2008/05/nowhere-to-go-but-up.html