Making the transition

It's been a year since I first arrived in Chicago, almost to the date (Sept. 6, 2008), and my, what a year it's been.

September: Started DePaul M.A. Journalism program (online/new media focus)
October: Redesigned my personal Web site
November: Attended Barack Obama's Election Night Rally at Grant Park
December: Spent the month at home with family
January: Attended Obama's Inauguration in D.C. and covered it for Sun-Times and launched Breaking Tweets
February: Met Guy Kawasaki
March: Busy fininshing classes for the winter quarter and starting the spring
April: First saw the Chicago Tribune newsroom
May: First game at Wrigley Field
June: Sat in press box for World Cup Qualifier at Soldier Field and started internship at Chicago Tribune
July: Attended Taste of Chicago and witnessed a crazy fight
August: Finished my Masters degree in Journalism (3.95 final GPA), moved into a new apartment north of the city (Aug. 20), and here we are...

I remain an intern at the Tribune, and absolutely love being there, primarily working with the site ChicagoNow. And I'll still be in the classroom too, making the shift from student to teacher.

I've always thought about teaching and toward the end of my undergraduate career, I really wanted to give it a try. The perfect opportunity presented itself at DePaul and I'll be an adjunct instructor starting this Wednesday (Sept. 9) teaching a course called Digital Editing.

The course should be a lot of fun, and quite unexpectedly, in the last week it got me a phone call from the Wall Street Journal and email from the Los Angeles Times. Those improbable interviews led to this Q&A and this post. The media attention didn't end with those two outlets, but those were definitely the highlights. Gawker even wrote about it.

All in all, I'm really excited about this transition. A little nervous, but mostly ready and willing to get started. So here we go!