The eaglet’s last hoorah in Lisa Parisot’s multimedia journalism class happened Monday, April 28th.
Our projects came due. We young multimedia journalism eaglets flocked to the multimedia room with a bit of trepidation to present our videos and audio slideshows and to watch those produced by our fellow eaglets.
I entered the room ten minutes before deadline. Eaglets were scattered about banging last minute corrections into their Apples.
I said my usual “hellos,” but this time all I got back was a quick nod of the head or a flip of the wrist. I think Don Mooney was the only one who gave a quick “howdy” though he didn’t turn his head. It was kind of strange; kind of like the back of his head saying howdy back to me, such was his concentration.
The whole room was like that. Focus, concentration – everybody staring hard into their computer screens and banging away on their keyboards trying to put the finishing touches to their projects before they turned them into Lisa at exactly 9:30.
Then at 9:30 a.m. on the dot, Lisa says, “Times up! Get your projects to me. Who wants to go first?”
Then the show begins. Each eaglet makes their presentation. Each suffers through a flurry of critiques. The criticism from the other eaglets is sufferable.The anticipated critique from the big mama eagle keeps us on edge, then, she speaks. And when she speaks it’s because one of us has violated a fundamental principle in shooting video of an event.
She asks us questions. Point this or that out. Some of us take it ok. Others argue back. Some go through the gambit of excuses, which she categorically rejects. All-in-all, it’s a tough hoorah, but a hoorah never-the-less.
Suddenly it’s all over. From what we’ve seen it’s obvious there is talent in the room. You could see the genius in each presentation; even through the fundamentals were violated here and there at times. But you would expect that of eaglets.
And though the eaglets applauded each other, the mother eagle, they knew, would view the presentations with an experienced eye in a room by herself, free of distractions. And the eaglets would have to wait to hear her evaluations come Monday again. Aaahh…waiting is so dastardly hard at times like this! Name an eaglet who disagrees!
So, come this Monday we’ll all flock to the nest once more to get our evaluations. Then, perhaps, some will take flight, eagles at last, on wobbly wings into the great unknown skies of multimedia journalism while others pursue their own agendas and varied dreams. With fundamentals on the wing, we all go flapping and flapping, growing stronger as we flap, some toward their destinies, others toward their goals. But we all take flight.
And when we do, there’s one loud hoorah yet, but this one is not from us. It’s from the mother who’s left in the nest.
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