Blogs » To venus and back » Like walking on fluffy cotton candy clouds

Subscribe


 
Like walking on fluffy cotton candy clouds
By adriana_acosta in To venus and back
October 27, 2010

This weekend has been filled with emotion that I have not yet fully been able to describe. This is happiness I know, to have gone to a conference in Chicago that is celebrating what I have chosen as my life career. I met so many wonderful people. (and powerful if I should be so bold to say) Publishers, newspaper owners, reporters, general managers, web designers) all with one goal in mind – to keep the future of newspapers alive.

All my life I knew I wanted to write and I felt like I never fit anywhere. My family has always been about math and numbers and engineering and me, the lonesome writer. Not that that was a bad thing, I love my family and having them in my life just made me a stronger person. But this weekend was a collective group of people with ideas about what I have been focusing on so much for the last year.

This was the bloodline of the newspaper industry.

Driving to Houston on Sunday morning was exciting, then flying to Chicago even more. Somewhere between Texas and Illinois, I began to panic a bit, or should I say I got nervous of what was waiting for me. I had taken the leap and now I was there.

From start to end the conference was filled with excitement. There were all day seminars, meeting so many people and they all knew who I was. They knew that I was one third of the 2011-2013 class of Inland Press Association minority fellowship recipients.

In Monday’s luncheon, all three of us fellows sat at the head table with the board members. I felt like royalty and it was something that was said during that luncheon that stuck with me throughout the day. All three of us, Alicia Gallegos, a reporter for The Sun Bend Tribune, Christian Ramirez, a web developer from Wick Communications and myself - we were the future of the industry. They are passing down the torch to us, per say. There is a goal in mind and we are in for the ride.

That day, we were officially introduced as the seventh group to be inducted into the Inland Press Association minority fellowship program. What is so great about this fellowship is not only will I be able to learn and grow from this, but will also be able to network with newspapers around the United States.

And most important is the friendships I made this weekend, including the six other fellows that I met this weekend. Some are in their last year of the program and others like me, are just beginning.

There is so much more I wish I could write. If you want to know more about my trip or the conference send me an e-mail: aacosta@vicad.com

Here is a photo of the the class of 2011-2013 Inland Press Association minority fellowship recipients.

Image

Alicia Gallegos, a reporter for The Sun Bend Tribune, Christian Ramirez, a web developer from Wick Communications and myself.