Almost

For five months my instructors have been telling me how competitive the communications industry is.

“Sure, I get that,” I thought.

I didn’t get that.

On January 25th, I received an email from the Winnipeg Free Press.

The email popped into my inbox at exactly 6:00 p.m. The paper had heard of a murder near the Osborne Street Bridge and needed someone to file a story that night.

I’ve been writing a To Do column for the paper’s Sunday Xtra edition, but this was different. This was bigger. This was way outside my comfort zone.

I had to do it.

Nervous and excited, I was careful to write a confident-sounding email and replied at exactly 6:15 p.m. I said that I was working nearby in the Exchange at the moment, but would be able to get down to the bridge at 8:00 p.m.

Immediately, he responded.

Someone else had already claimed the job. I wrote back only 15 minutes after receiving the email and someone else had beaten me to it.

That someone is a second year CreComm student so that’s awesome and I’m happy for her, but her speed made me think about what our instructors have been saying.

This is a competitive industry.

And that’s a little scary.

You can read the story that was published here. It really is quite good.