Friday, June 16, 2006
Lessons Learned
Nearing the end of my first week as the BIRD TALK intern I'm pleased to say that I'm doing what I always said I wanted to do for the rest of my life--Learning. I recently graduated with a bachelor's degree from Texas State university-San Marcos, so I've had my fair share of learning through school. However, the type of learning I intend to continue now does not involve school (or at least I hope not too much more of it). My choice to pursue the mass communication/journalism field was largely based on the fact that I would always have to research something that is unknown to me and regurgitate that information to an audience, thus I will always be learning.
Until this week, my knowledge of pet birds involved Paco, the funny talking parrot (the species of which I have no idea), that my siblings and I would visit in the mall pet store in my home town in West Texas. Later in high school I had a limited encounter with my friend's two new parakeets, one of which climbed onto my head and relieved itself in my hair right before I left for a school function.
Reading BIRD TALK magazines this week and learning about the seemingly endless number of pet bird species, I've begun to actually consider getting one of my own, but not until I'm no longer moving around every three months. While I love to check out the birds in the pet store and watch the wild birds around my parents' house, learning and writing about them was something I never thought twice, or even once, about. But, as with every other odd topic I've been assigned in the past to research and write on, the subject of pet birds has become fascinating to me. I've learned there is so much more than I could ever imagine to keeping a pet bird and I'm happy to find out what wonderful companions they can make. Personality in a bird? The ability of a bird to express its feelings toward a human? Just a few of the things I never considered possible, but am glad to be wrong about them.
During the past week I've once again been taught that my goal to always continue learning is something I need to stick with. My introduction into the pet bird realm has reminded me that there are many more topics I am unfamiliar with than are there those with which I am familiar.
I'm looking forward to the coming weeks, working with the BT team. I'm excited that I have the opportunity to work with them on the bird channel Web site that will launch in the coming months. Thanks to working with the BT team, I've been pleasantly surprised to learn that not only must I always be willing to soak in knowledge about unfamiliar subject matter, but I'm also pleased to learn there is more to the print and online journalism industry, beyond my past newspaper experiences.
~Ashley
Until this week, my knowledge of pet birds involved Paco, the funny talking parrot (the species of which I have no idea), that my siblings and I would visit in the mall pet store in my home town in West Texas. Later in high school I had a limited encounter with my friend's two new parakeets, one of which climbed onto my head and relieved itself in my hair right before I left for a school function.
Reading BIRD TALK magazines this week and learning about the seemingly endless number of pet bird species, I've begun to actually consider getting one of my own, but not until I'm no longer moving around every three months. While I love to check out the birds in the pet store and watch the wild birds around my parents' house, learning and writing about them was something I never thought twice, or even once, about. But, as with every other odd topic I've been assigned in the past to research and write on, the subject of pet birds has become fascinating to me. I've learned there is so much more than I could ever imagine to keeping a pet bird and I'm happy to find out what wonderful companions they can make. Personality in a bird? The ability of a bird to express its feelings toward a human? Just a few of the things I never considered possible, but am glad to be wrong about them.
During the past week I've once again been taught that my goal to always continue learning is something I need to stick with. My introduction into the pet bird realm has reminded me that there are many more topics I am unfamiliar with than are there those with which I am familiar.
I'm looking forward to the coming weeks, working with the BT team. I'm excited that I have the opportunity to work with them on the bird channel Web site that will launch in the coming months. Thanks to working with the BT team, I've been pleasantly surprised to learn that not only must I always be willing to soak in knowledge about unfamiliar subject matter, but I'm also pleased to learn there is more to the print and online journalism industry, beyond my past newspaper experiences.
~Ashley
