Earshot

I got news this week that was so good it necessitated going out to Dizzy’s on karaoke night and singing “Like a Prayer” on stage with my friends.

Really, I probably would have done it anyway.

But I sang under the guise of celebrating my offer of admission to Carleton University’s Master of Journalism program.

I applied to the MJ programs at Carleton, Ryerson, and Western, with Carleton as my first choice all along because of its distinguished reputation in the field and its location in Ottawa, the epicentre of Canadian politics. I was never sure that I would get in. The competition is stiff – only twenty students are taken into the program every year.

But I'm told that they want me to be one of them.

(They obviously didn’t hear me sing.)

I’ll be Ottawa-bound in September, armed with an entrance scholarship, a paid TA position (Teacher’s Assistant), and the certitude that this is what I want.

I see journalism as a mix of travelling, learning, analyzing, and writing...which I do by choice already.

This week, for example, had me out playing with penguins on a daytrip, sitting in on a meeting at parliament for my job, discussing South Africa’s electricity crisis, World Cup woes, and leadership uncertainties with my co-workers, and submitting edited articles for our magazine, which goes to the printer’s next week.

I feel ready for it.

After just a few more months of dancing to African drums.