Keeping the Camelot Dream Alive

I wasn't aware of this, but it's apparently only a little known secret that, for all of high school and the start of freshman year of college, I wanted to be and worked toward being a journalist.  Back before I got brainwashed into going to law school (joke), I had dreams that ranged from working at The New York Times to writing puff pieces for women's magazines.  The things that would now give me pause when considering this profession -- the crazy up-all-night hours, the absurd deadlines, the necessity of networking and cold-calling and interviews -- were the things that originally appealed to me.  I wanted to be in the thick of it, you know?  I wanted to write the news, in whatever form it took.

So when I started watching HBO's The Newsroom, it took less than a nanosecond for me to love it.

If you were to ask me at 17 what kind of news I wanted to report, this would be it (minus the whole broadcast part.  I wanted to do print.).  I wouldn't have been able to tell you that in so many words, of course, because after all, I was 17 -- what did I know of politics or the media machine or the fourth pillar?  But if I did know, News Night 2.0 would have been it.  Real news, less bullshit.  Less concerned with bias and more concerned with providing all the facts.  Does that make me idealistic?  Sure.  Does that mean I'm a sucker for those fantastic and impassioned lets-rally-all-ye-troops speeches a character gives from atop their soapbox at the end of each episode?  You bet your ass.

But that's okay, isn't it?  Isn't it a good thing to want to improve the way our news is presented?  Isn't it good to want to make it more honest?  Particularly this year, don't we want a more informed electorate instead of one that agrees with everything Fox News (or its liberal equivalent) says?

Yes.  Emphatically yes.

My one gripe about the show right now is that the political agenda of the creators is perhaps a bit too obvious.  While The Newsroom readily and accurately critiques and points out the idiocies of one political party, it fails to do that to the other.  Which, contrary to the entire premise of the show, isn't presenting all the facts, just the facts that line up with your views.

But that aside, what's really not to love?  Witty, Gilmore-Girl-rapid-fire dialogue, sharp commentary on the greed and powers at play behind the media, love stories (raise your hand if you keep referring to Jim and Maggie and JimandPam.  Just me?), a chance to reflect on the biggest news stories over the past 2 years, Dev Patel, Sam Waterston and Jeff Daniels?  Come on.

Come.  On.

The first season of The Newsroom just wrapped on Sunday night.  There are 10 episodes.  Find them and watch them.  Let me know if you want company.

A Place To Be

Ten years ago, I graduated from high school.

Ten.  Years.

It probably seems like a long time to some people, and no time at all for others.  It seems like both to me.

I've been thinking a lot about the space, the distance (both literal and figurative), between who I was at 18 and who I am now, mostly because last week was my high school reunion and I missed it.  I didn't want to go for a number of reasons: I already see most of the people I really want to see from high school; a plane ticket back to Hawaii ain't cheap and, if I'm gonna spend the cash, I'd rather spend the time with my family; I honestly felt like I had better things to do last week (turns out I was right). 

Does that sound harsh?  I don't mean it to.  It really would have been amazing to get back on campus, that place that I literally lived for 7 years (I boarded there since the seventh grade...it did not take me that long to graduate from high school!  What am I, dumb?).  And it would have probably been equally great to see some of those people that I don't actively think about, but who were such a part of the canvas of my life when I was a teenager.  I'd like to know how they're doing, what they're up to, how they're making their mark on the world.

But I'm also a place in my life where I'm trying to figure out who I am right now, who I want to be, and putting myself into a situation where I'm surrounded not only by people who know me as a certain person, but also a place where I was a certain person, well, it just didn't seem like the thing to do. 

I think Emil Blunt said it best in The Jane Austen Book Club: High school is never over.

Don't get me wrong, I love Hawaii.  I love my family and my friends, my culture and heritage, my hometown, my history.  I love that I know the rhythms of that place, the sing-song of the voices, the trajectory of most stories and jokes.  I know Hawaii, you know?  That's comforting.

But I also know that it's not where I belong right now.  Maybe not ever.  It's not where I'm going to be the best version of me I can be.  I can't go there and surround myself with the kind of people I want to surround myself with (other than my family).  And I'm able to do that where I am now.  I'm able to be around friends who constantly push me to go for whatever it is I want, who inspire me to take that next step, who enjoy talking about that next step. I'm able to say, "Hey, next week I want to go on a road trip...how about Yellowstone?" and actually do that.  I have a freedom here I don't think I would have back home.  I'm able to be ambitious, to have that be realistic, and to know that I have the support I need to be successful too.

I know this all makes me sound a little selfish.  It does.  I'm aware.

But I'm okay with that.  Isn't it the time in my life when I should be selfish?